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| - Fact Check: Horrifying video of car drowning is NEITHER from Karnataka NOR related to Cyclone Biparjoy
India Today found that this video is not from India at all. It's from Nicaragua in Central America.
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India Today Fact Check
The video is from Nicaragua in Central America and has nothing to do with Cyclone Biparjoy.
According to the India Meteorological Department, Cyclone Biparjoy is expected to make landfall in Gujarat's Saurashtra and Kutch regions and the adjoining Pakistani coasts on June 15. As a consequence of the cyclonic activities, other parts of India, including Karnataka, are also experiencing heavy rains.
Amid this, a terrifying video of a car drifting off a waterlogged road into a nearby river has been widely shared. The video shows an SUV being pulled into the stream by the sheer force of the current and subsequently getting pummeled by muddy waters.
Allegedly, this video was from Dandeli, a town near the Hubli-Dharwad region of Karnataka. The video was shared with the hashtag “Cyclone Biparjoy”. Its archived version can be seen here.
India Today, however, found that the video is from the Central American country Nicaragua.
OUR PROBE
A reverse search of frames from the video led us to a tweet from May 30 that contained the same video. The tweet said in Spanish, “Gentlemen, let's not put our lives in danger for an act of irresponsibility just because we drive a car that we think makes us stupid, we have a family, let's be prudent, thank God the driver survived and there was only material damage.”
In response to another person asking where the video was from, the original poster said Nicaragua. Another person, in the responses, shared a screenshot of a Spanish-language news report from May 29 that contained grabs from the viral clip. Its headline said, “VIDEO: Strong current of water dragged a truck along with its driver; did not survive.”
Additional text in the screengrab added in Spanish, “The rainy season is already in force in Central America and in Nicaragua, the heavy downpours have already caused the death of a man this Monday after being swept away by a stream of water when he was driving his car.”
Subsequently, we found several news reports about the incident on Spanish-language news sites. Reportedly, the incident took place in Veracruz, in the municipality of Nindir in Nicaragua. The driver of the Toyota SUV seen drowning in the viral video was identified as Alberto Uriel Romero Martnez.
The 48-year-old reportedly managed to jump out of the truck, which is visible in the viral video. However, he drowned in the waters. Firefighters and the National Police found his body in the Los Cocal region near the Managua International Airport.
We also found the footage of the incident on the official YouTube channel of “100% Noticias”, a Nicaraguan broadcaster. The channel also contained a video of the same incident shot from another angle.
So, it’s clear that this video has nothing to do with India or Cyclone Biparjoy. Incidentally, this tragic incident wasn’t just shared with misleading claims in India. In Sri Lanka, it went viral as an incident in the town of Haputale. This too was debunked by fact-checkers.
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