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| - Fact Check: Viral video of man kicking Morbi bridge cable is recent - not years old as some have claimed
AFWA found that the viral video is not old and that it was likely shot days ago after the Morbi Bridge was reopened to the public.
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India Today Fact Check
This video is not from 2018 or 2021. While we could not find an exact date, it was most likely shot recently. But it does not also show the events leading up to the collapse.
At least 141 people died after a British-era bridge in Gujarat's Morbi collapsed on the evening of October 30. The bridge reopened to the public on October 26 after renovation. While an investigation is still underway, many videos of the bridge flooded social media with a conspiracy theory - that some people deliberately tried to sabotage it.
One such video is that of the crowded bridge (with a black arrow pointing at the crowd) where some people can be seen pulling the suspension cables and kicking the safety fence.
However, countering this claim, several people asserted that the viral video is actually a few years old - possibly from either 2018 or 2021, implying it couldn’t possibly have anything to do with the bridge's collapse. The counterclaims were backed by two videos of the Morbi Bridge that have been available on the internet at least since 2018 and 2021 respectively. The archived versions of similar posts can be seen here and here.
In these videos as well, people can be seen pulling the suspension cables of the 150-year-old bridge. Many came to this conclusion based on the colours of a group of people’s clothes in the different videos.
AFWA found that the viral video is not old and that it was likely shot days ago after the Morbi Bridge was reopened to the public. However, AFWA in any way is NOT suggesting that the bridge could have collapsed due to pulling and kicking at the fence and cables. The collapse is a matter of a detailed probe and beyond the scope of our investigation.
AFWA PROBE
Watching the CCTV footage of the Morbi bridge collapse, we noticed that the bridge’s fence was taller than the people standing on it. The fence looked approximately 6.5 feet tall. A few other videos of the bridge shot after the renovation also confirmed that the new fence is taller than the height of an average person. In the viral video as well, the fence is taller than the people.
However, the Morbi Bridge’s fence was shorter before its renovation. Images and videos of the bridge shot before the renovation confirm that the fence was then approximately four feet. The fencing also appears short in the aforementioned 2018 and 2021 videos that are being shared as counterclaims.
In the viral video, a boundary wall can be seen on the bank of the river at the end of the bridge. Historical satellite imagery and old videos from the spot show the wall used to be shorter till 2019. It was made taller by the end of 2020. In the viral video, the boundary is taller, suggesting it is not old.
Images from live coverage of the accident also show there is a bush on a pillar at the right end of the bridge.
In the viral video, too, we spotted a bush of roughly the same size. This bush was also present at the same spot on the pillar in the 2018 and 2021 videos - but was less prominent.
Thus, we conclude that the viral video (with the black arrow) is not from 2018 or 2021. It was most likely shot recently. But it also does not show the events leading up to the collapse.
Also Read | Fact Check: Months-old photo used to publicise low pollution levels in Delhi during Diwali 2022
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