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| - FACT CHECK: Viral Facebook Video Falsely Claims 78,000 People Are Under Water In Great Britain
A viral video shared on Facebook claims 78,000 people are purportedly under water in Great Britain.
Verdict: False
The video is comprised of multiple unrelated clips focused on weather events, with some showing scenes from the U.K. and some showing scenes from other countries.
Fact Check:
Remnants of Hurricane Franklin may bring warm weather to the U.K. as a result of disrupting the jet stream, according to Sky News. The storm, which struck Bermuda on Wednesday, is set to move through the North Atlantic, the outlet reported.
“Great Britain now! 78,000 people under the water!” the Facebook video, liked 1,000 times, purports. The video appears to show flooding in multiple parts of the country.
The claim is false, as the video is comprised of multiple unrelated clips focused on weather events, with some showing scenes from the U.K. and some showing scenes from other countries.
The video’s opening clip, which appears to show a house falling beneath flood waters, stems from a 2019 demonstration staged on the River Thames in London by environmental activists from Extinction Rebellion. The clip featuring an instrument measuring outdoor flood waters was shot in 2022 and shows a pub in Shropshire that was underwater at the time.
The clip showing waves nearly crashing over an outdoor barrier stems from a Reuters report on Storm Franklin, which struck the U.K. in February 2022.
Likewise, the clip showing a person kayaking through flood waters was originally posted to X, the social media platform previously called Twitter, in February 2020 and was shot in Shrewsbury. The clip of a man sweeping water outdoors was also posted to X by BBC London in August 2022.
Two clips showing two separate instances of outdoor flooding appear to stem from a January 2023 Wales Online article and a January 2023 X video, respectively.
Similarly, the clip, in which a storm appears to be filmed from inside a house, originates via ViralHog’s verified YouTube channel and shows hail pelting Canada in September 2019, while the clip of lightning striking a house with a red roof was also shot in Canada at the Bryson Lake Lodge in 2017, according to a Daily Mail article from the same year.
Finally, the clip showing vehicles driving down a flooded street was posted to X in February 2023 and shows Polokwane, South Africa. (RELATED: Did A Volcano In Ethiopia Erupt Blue Lava?)
Likewise, Check Your Fact found no recent credible news reports about purported flooding in Britain from U.K.-based outlets such as BBC News or The Guardian.
Check Your Fact has contacted the London Metropolitan and Shrewsbury Police Departments for comment and will update this piece accordingly if one is received.
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