An old image of 2020’s earthquake falsely linked to the recent earthquake in Turkey

After a powerful earthquake struck Turkey recently, a photo showing the collapse and collapse of a building was posted on social media with the post as an earthquake scene in Turkey. The posting of this photo has been shared and commented on many times by Cambodian social media users. However, Fact Crescendo Cambodia's fact-finding found that the photo attached to the post was misleading.

This is about our investigation of this photo.

Social Media Claim

On February 6, 2023, a Facebook user recently posted three photos which show a view of a building that collapsed. One of them was attached to the post that was the scene of the earthquake in Turkey in February recently. This has been shared by many social media users, along with mixed expressions and reactions.

Below is a snapshot from the Facebook user's post above that read in Khmer or translated in English as “Earthquake! The level of 7.4 in #Turkey 🇹🇷”.

Facebook Post | Archived Link

The photo above was also linked and posted by other Facebook pages to the quake that happened in Turkey recently.

Facebook Post | Archived Link

Fact Check

Fact Crescendo Cambodia started reviewing the photos and claims above through Google Reverse Image Search, which led us to find out the following facts.

A photo of the exact same form and shape was found and published on a news website called CBC on January 25, 2020 which has confirmed that the building collapsed was caused by an earthquake in the Elazig region of Turkey that killed at least 29 people and injured hundreds more.

The following is an image captured from the website above written in English as “rescuers have been working on the collapsed building to rescue the victims”.

CBC News Link | Archived Link

The case attached to the above photo was also verified and reviewed by AFP on February 07th, 2023 which was written in English as “Old photos have been republished with false claims of a view of the quake in Turkey in February 2023”.

AFP Link | Archived Link

Follow Us and Stay Up to Date with Our Latest Fact Checks.

Facebook Twitter Telegram Google News TikTok

You may find the details of this fact-check in Khmer language here as well.

Conclusion

Fact Crescendo Cambodia found that the photo attached to the text above is misleading. This photo shows the collapsed building resulting from the earthquake in Turkey's Elazig province in January 2020.