By: Vivek J
September 12 2023
Video of building collapsing in Turkey shared as Morocco earthquake footage
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Social media videos claiming to show a building collapsing in Morocco during the recent earthquake. (Source: X/YouTube/Screenshot)
Fact-Check
The Verdict False
This video was filmed in February when a building damaged during the earthquake in Turkey was brought down by controlled demolition.
Claim ID 33bdec60
What is the claim?
According to the latest news reports, the death toll in Morocco, which was hit by an earthquake on September 8, has crossed 2,800. As the North African country deals with the massive destruction and loss of life, several unrelated images and videos claiming to show the aftermath of the deadly tremors have flooded social media platforms
One such video on X (formerly Twitter), which had over 72,000 views at the time of publishing, claimed to show an apartment complex building collapsing in Morocco during the earthquake. The same video was shared on YouTube by multiple users as well.
Social media post claiming to show a building collapsing in Morocco. (Source: X/Screenshot/Modified by Logically Facts)
However, this video is old and unrelated to the recent earthquake in Morocco.
What did we find?
We conducted a reverse image search using the video’s keyframes and came across multiple Turkish reports sharing the same visuals as the viral clip. One such report published on February 15 by Yeniçağ Gazetesi, a Turkish nationalist news outlet, noted that the building was an apartment complex that was damaged during the massive earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria the same month and left more than 50,000 people dead.
Screenshot of the image from the Yeniçağ Gazetesi article on the controlled demolition of the Kubilay apartment building. (Source: Yeniçağ Gazetesi/Screenshot)
The report noted that the building in question, the Gündoğdu Kubilay apartment building, was located on Turgut Özal Boulevard in the Huzurevleri suburbs of the Çukurova district of Adana. As the structure was partially damaged in the earthquake that killed nearly 378 people in Adana alone, the authorities carried out a controlled demolition of the damaged building.
Yeniçağ Gazetesi also noted that hundreds of people flocked to witness the controlled demolition and were watching it from a safe distance at a nearby cemetery.
There were other news reports from Turkish outlets on the demolition of the apartment complex. We also found several social media posts with the video of the building’s demolition from February.
Social media posts sharing visuals of the building demolition in Adana in February. (Source: X/Facebook/Screenshot)
We also came across a Facebook video that was live-streamed by one of the onlookers moments before the building was demolished. The video was live-streamed on February 10 by the page ‘Adana Burada.’ The page bio, when translated from Turkish to English, reads, “Our aim is to bring you the beauties, cultures, tourist attractions and activities of Adana.”
Screenshot of the video live-streamed on Facebook on February 10. (Source: Facebook/Adana Burada/Screenshot)
Upon comparing the now-viral clip with the videos from February, we found that the former appears to be a mirror image of the old videos. A board on the building that reads “Aslar VIP” has been reversed in the viral clip.
Comparison of the board on the building in the viral clip and the videos from February. (Source: X/Facebook/Screenshot/Modified by Logically Facts)
The verdict
The video claiming to show a building collapsing in Morocco during the September earthquake is actually from Turkey. The clip captures a controlled demolition of a building damaged by an earthquake in February. Hence, we mark the claim false.