Claim: A video on social media apparently shows a storm due to Cyclone Biparjoy striking India and Pakistan.
Fact: The claim is false as the video is from Egypt and actually shows a sandstorm at the Suez Canal.
Cyclone Biparjoy was churning across the northeastern Arabian Sea and hit western India on 15 June 2023. The storm was predicted to make landfall near the border of India (Kutch in the western Indian state of Gujarat) and Pakistan (coastal areas of Sindh and Balochistan) around midday Thursday. However, the cyclone changed its direction, and after coastal warnings were issued, tens of thousands of people were evacuated in both countries.
Fact or Fiction?
On 13 June 2023, a Twitter account posted a video (archived) with the caption, “Scenes of the storm moving towards the coastal areas of Karachi, Pakistan and Gujarat, India.”
To investigate the matter, Soch Fact Check used reverse image tools to find that the video shows a recent sandstorm in Egypt on 1 June 2023.
The BBC posted the same video on 2 June 2023 with the headline “Huge sandstorm sweeps across Suez Canal in Egypt.” The story further reads that parts of Egypt have been hit by clouds of dust and sand, and at least five people were injured. After the video of the sandstorm surrounding the Suez Canal went viral, Egyptian authorities closed two of its ports.
CNN and other media outlets also posted the same video of the huge sandstorm engulfing Egypt’s Suez Canal.
Virality
The false posts on Twitter received 50.7k views. The archived versions of the same video shared in a false context can be seen here, here, here, and here.
On Facebook, it can be seen here and here and was also first posted on Tiktok by Bol News here.
Conclusion: A recent viral video shows a sandstorm in Egypt, not Cyclone Biparjoy near Pakistan and India.