By Hazel Gandhi
A video showing a tornado in Myanmar is being falsely shared as a video from the recent storm that occurred in Tinsukia, Assam.
BOOM found that the video is from the Naypyidaw region of Myanmar that recently saw a rare tornado that claimed 8 lives and destroyed several buildings.
Heavy rains and storms have claimed the lives of two people in Tinsukia, Assam since last week, ANI reported. In light of this, the India Meteorological Department had issued a yellow warning for the entire northeast region and schools and colleges in Tinsukia were also instructed to be shut down by the district administration.
The video, which shows strong winds devastating trees and houses, is being shared with the caption, "This is the first time tinsukia is expressing with such weather stay safe everyone 😔…"
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
Click here to view the tweet and here for an archive.
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FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the video showed a tornado that tore across two villages near Myanmar's capital city Naypyidaw on April 21, 2022.
A reverse image search of one of the keyframes of the viral video and relevant keywords led us to a news article published on April 23 which carried a still from the viral video. According to the report, the tornado occurred in the Lewe Township of Naypyidaw and rescue operations had begun. Read here.
Using this information, we looked for reports about the tornado in Naypyidaw and found a video uploaded on the website of The Weather Channel. The video, titled 'Deadly, Powerful Tornado Hits Central Myanmar' carried visuals from our viral video and was uploaded on April 26.
Click here to view.
Further, we used keywords like "Myanmar tornado videos" in Burmese and found a YouTube video uploaded by the Tachileik News Agency on April 22. The video was a longer version of our viral video and was titled 'Tachileik News Agency : Tornado in Nay Pyi Taw Lewey Township'.
A report on Tachilieik News Agency's website informed that schools, residential buildings, one rural clinic, and a monastery were among the buildings that were destroyed during the tornado. According to AP, the rare tornado claimed 8 casualties and destroyed more than 200 houses.
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