On June 22, a strong earthquake struck a remote, mountainous area of eastern Afghanistan, close to the Pakistani border, killing at least 1,000 people and wounding nearly 1,500.
Against this backdrop, an image showing a collapsed building is being widely shared on social media linking it to the recent Afghanistan earthquake.
The image is shared on Facebook with a caption in the Arabic language: “زلزال قوي يضرب #أفغانستان , يودي بحياة أكثر من 950 شخصاً ومئات المصابين ودمار هائل في المنازل , حيث ضرب الزلزال مقاطعة باكتيكا شرق البلاد في وقت مبكر من صباح اليوم”
(English translation: A powerful earthquake hits #Afghanistan, killing more than 950 people, and injuring thousands with massive destruction of properties, where the earthquake hit Paktika district early this morning)
Here’s the link to the above post.
FACT CHECK
NewsMobile fact-checked the above claim, and found it to be MISLEADING.
Doing a simple Reverse Image Search directed us to Getty Images, which carried the same viral image on January 26, 2020.
The image description reads: “Rescue workers at the scene of a collapsed building on January 26, 2020, in Elazig, Turkey. The 6.8-magnitude earthquake injured more than 1,600 people and left some 30 trapped in the wreckage of toppled buildings. Turkey sits on top of two major fault-lines and earthquakes are frequent in the country.”
The same image was also featured in a Bloomberg article, dated January 31, 2020, with the description: “Rescue workers at the scene of a collapsed building in Elazig following an earthquake on January 26.”
Searching further, we found many news articles published in January 2020 that reported the same earthquake, stating “at least 22 people died and hundreds injured in eastern Turkey after an earthquake rattled the region on Friday evening, according to authorities.”
Thus, it is evident from the above information that the viral image is not related to the recent Afghanistan earthquake.
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