A video shared online purporting to be footage of the Feb. 6, 2023 earthquakes that struck central Turkey and northwest Syria are from an October 2020 earthquake that struck the Aegean Sea.
A tweet purports to show footage during the Feb. 6 earthquake and says: “BREAKING: Turkey & 4 other countries suffering BAD following a 7.6 magnitude EARTHQUAKE. 10,000+ people dead and more hurt” (here). More examples can be seen on Facebook (here) and (here).
A magnitude 7.8 earthquake killed more than 5,000 people in Turkey and Syria on Feb. 6, according to Reuters reporting (here). It struck before sunrise and was followed by another large quake. Rescue operations were ongoing, Reuters reported (here), (here).
The video shared online appears to show surveillance camera footage of kitchen staff during an earthquake, with some users saying it is from a hotel in Turkey.
However, a search for the video leads to identical footage that dates to an earthquake that struck the coastal areas of the Aegean Sea on Oct. 30, 2020 (here). The logo on the top right of the video matches that of the video shared in recent social media posts. It also appears to show a blurry Oct. 30, 2020 timestamp on the top right corner of the screen.
Similar footage was shared by semi-official Iranian outlet MEHR News Agency in October 2020 (here), and circulated on social media at the time as well (here).
The October 2020 earthquake with a magnitude of up to 7.0 killed 116 people in Turkey and Greece, particularly hitting hard the Turkish city of Izmir, according to Reuters reports (here), (here).
Misinformation often spreads online after a catastrophe strikes and can include false images of the aftermath or misleading narratives on rescue efforts.
Reuters fact check has debunked multiple miscaptioned videos following the recent earthquake (here), (here), (here) and (here).
VERDICT
Miscaptioned. The video is from 2020 and shows an earthquake that hit the Aegean Sea, not the recent earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our work to fact-check social media posts (here).
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.