There are quite a few on the internet authentic Recordings, showing the devastating damage caused by the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria. Other images and videos, on the other hand, are shared in the wrong context, such as this one Tiktok-Video: It shows how several skyscrapers collapse at the same time – allegedly in Turkey. “It seems more like a controlled demolition,” comments one user below.
In fact, the video gives the impression that it shows an ordinary blast. Indications of this are, for example, that no vibrations from other buildings can be seen in the video and that large clouds of dust suddenly and simultaneously escape from the buildings on the lower floors, as would be the case with an explosion.
Not in Turkey: Alleged building collapse shows controlled demolition in China in August 2021
We found several videos of the demolition of some high-rise buildings in China on Youtube in August 2021, around USA Todaywhich are the same as the recording on Tiktok, only the perspective is different.
In a longer article, in which many different shots of the blast are shown, Minute 1:59 to see clearly that it was the same event. This can be seen, among other things, from the fact that one of the buildings does not collapse completely and consequently sticks out of the cloud of dust (we have marked the building with a red circle in the image below).
One of the clips seen in the video was shot from a similar perspective as the video on Tiktok (Minute 3:54 im Video). It is therefore obviously not a recording from Turkey, but the blast in Kunming in China. At the end of August 2021, 15 unfinished high-rise buildings were blown up there after construction work had been delayed for years and rain had damaged the shells too badly.
On February 6, there was a strong earthquake in the border region of Turkey and Syria, followed by several aftershocks. Videos and pictures that show something else are often circulating during natural disasters, for example in Sommer 2021 during floods in North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate.
Since the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria on February 6, 2023, several photos have been circulating that allegedly show the consequences of the disaster. We investigate potential false reports and submissions about them. You can find a fact check here to a video showing a collapsing building in Saudi Arabia.
Edited by: Matthias Bau, Sarah Thust
