A video purportedly showing Nepal’s security forces rescuing a six-year-old girl from under debris in Timore village of Rasuwa district, three days after the devastating floods and landslides, is going viral on social media. Users sharing the video claim that the girl, identified as Manisha, was found alive after being buried in mud for three days.
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NM VERIFIED
NewsMobile verified the claim and found that the video is AI-generated.
The NM Team initiated its verification by conducting a reverse image search of key frames from the viral video. While the search did not find the viral footage itself, we came across credible media reports, including a BBC report published on August 28, confirming that a young girl, identified as Manisha, was rescued alive from the debris in Nepal. However, the video featured in the viral claim is not the same footage as the rescue video reported by credible media organisations. Therefore, while the rescue of Manisha is genuine, the viral video being circulated does not show the reported rescue.
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We then closely examined the viral video and noticed several visual inconsistencies. The texture and consistency of the mud visible on the girl’s face and on the rescuers’ hands appear unnatural. While the security personnel can be seen wiping and cleaning the girl’s face, the mud appears to disappear in an inconsistent manner. The girl’s hand and body movements also appear unnatural and lack the fluidity normally seen in real footage.
Further, in the latter part of the video, the girl is shown sitting with four security personnel and apparently having soup. The composition, positioning of the people and the overall camera perspective appear unusual, raising further doubts about the authenticity of the footage. The suspicious camera movement and framing are also inconsistent with what one would typically expect from an actual rescue operation recorded in difficult flood conditions.
These visual inconsistencies are characteristic of AI-generated or manipulated videos. To further establish the authenticity of the footage, we analysed the viral video using Zhuque AI Detection Assistant, an AI-content detection tool. The analysis indicated that the video was AI-generated.
Therefore, it is evident that while Nepal’s security forces did rescue a girl from under debris in Timore, Rasuwa, the viral video being shared to depict that rescue is AI-generated.
