False: Video of cars being damaged by an earthquake that struck Turkey on November 23, 2022.

By: Ankita Kulkarni
November 28 2022

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Context

A 5.9 magnitude earthquake in Turkey near Duzce injured at least 50 people, and BBC News reported that the tremors were felt till Istanbul and the capital Ankara. Several videos have surfaced online claiming to show the alleged scenes from an earthquake. In one such video shared on Twitter, we can see several cars stranded in the middle of the road due to the destruction. Damaged cars, smoke, and a vehicle that appears to be an ambulance can also be spotted. The caption to the post reads, "Another #Earthquake in #Turkey and neighbours. Praying to everyone’s safety. What is happening." 

The video has garnered thousands of views on the platform, with users claiming that it shows destruction from the recent earthquake. However, the video is unrelated to the earthquake that struck the city on November 23, 2022. 

In Fact

On conducting a reverse image search with appropriate keywords taken from the Turkish language, we found that the visuals in the viral video depict the aftermath of the car accident that occurred in the Mecidiyekoy area of Istanbul's Sisli provenance on November 23, 2022, hours before the earthquake. A YouTube video posted by a Turkish news outlet, Ihlas News Agency, shows the exact same visuals as seen in the viral video. The description reads (Translated from Turkish), "A driver speeding in the direction of E-5 Highway Mecidiyeköy caused a chain accident involving 12 vehicles. While 8 people were injured, one of them seriously, the situation turned into a place of apocalypse". A Facebook video by a local media, Sabah, also shows the same visuals of the car accident.   

A local news report by Hurriyet notes that a car moving at high speed in the direction of Ankara on the Mecidiyeköy area at the D-100 highway first crashed into a commercial taxi, and later other vehicles. This led to the accident of 13 vehicles in a chain, injuring 8 people, including a baby. The report further notes that the cause of the accident is not yet known, and the police investigation is underway.

Since both the earthquake and car accident happened on the same date, we looked into reports that mentioned the timings of the occurrences. Local news outlet Norm Haber reported that the car accident occurred at around 01:20 night local time. Another video report by the Ahaber News site provided a live report that noted the time as 1:58 at night. Subsequently, a tweet by the Turkish Police Service on November 23, 2022, indicated the "5.9 magnitude earthquake that occurred in Düzce at 04.08, local time". Reuters also confirmed the same timings.

The timings mentioned in the reports clarify that both incidents occurred in different time zones and are unrelated.

The Verdict

Although both incidents occurred on the same day, the video in question shows the aftermath of a car accident that happened hours before the earthquake. Therefore we have marked the claim as false.