Fact Check: 2023 Video Of Türkiye Hospital Passed Off As Visuals Of Japan Earthquake
A video, purportedly showing a nurse running inside a hospital to save a child during an earthquake, is being shared as depicting recent scenes following the earthquake in Japan.
The Verdict [False]
- The footage captures the moment tremors hit a hospital in Türkiye in February 2023. It is unrelated to the recent earthquake in Japan.
What’s the claim?
On January 1, 2024, a 7.6 magnitude earthquake struck north-central Japan, followed by a series of aftershocks, leading to tsunami alerts for the coastal regions of Ishikawa, Niigata, and Toyama.
In the wake of this event, numerous videos started circulating on social media, claiming to depict recent scenes following the earthquake in Japan. One particular video, purportedly showing a nurse running inside a hospital to save a child during an earthquake, has gained significant traction online.
An X user shared the video, captioning it, "JUST IN: Watch as Japan earthquake hits hospital, sending nurses into a panic." The post had amassed over 500,000 views at the time of writing this article. Archived versions of similar posts are available here and here.
Screenshot of claims made online. (Source: X/Modified by Logically Facts)
The video clip has also gained traction on Facebook with the same narrative. Archive versions can be accessed here and here.
However, the clip is not from the January 1, 2024 earthquake in Japan.
What we found
The presence of the "TRT World" logo in the viral video prompted our search for the original footage from this Turkish news outlet. We discovered that TRT World had uploaded the same video on YouTube on February 13, 2023, with the title "Nurse rushes to rescue children as massive earthquake hits."
A reverse image search of keyframes from the viral video led us to a YouTube video published by The Times and The Sunday Times on February 13, 2023. The incident happened at a hospital in Gaziantep, a city in south-central Türkiye. As per the video's description, after an earthquake struck Türkiye in February 2023, Seyma Alakus, a nurse at Inayet Topcuoglu Hospital in Gaziantep province, acted instinctively to save as many children as possible as soon as she felt the tremors.
We also found the video published by Middle East Eye on YouTube in February 2023. The video description reads, "A hospital in Gaziantep has released footage of the moment that the 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck, showing hospital workers risking their own lives in order to save young children, and nurses in neonatal wards holding onto incubators containing premature babies to prevent them from turning over."
A 7.8-magnitude earthquake sent a wave of destruction across southern Türkiye and near the northern border of Syria on February 6, 2023, killing at least 1,500 people.
The recent 7.6 magnitude earthquake in Japan resulted in a death toll of at least 30 people and inflicted significant damage to infrastructure. As reported by the Japan Times, the quake prompted a substantial tsunami warning following the seismic activity. However, all tsunami warnings and advisories were subsequently lifted by the country. The highest recorded wave following the quakes reached over 1.2 meters height at Wajima Port in Ishikawa, the report added.
The verdict
The clip showing a nurse trying to recuse children at a hospital is from Gaziantep, a city in south-central Türkiye, where a magnitude 7.8 earthquake was reported in February 2023. Therefore, we have marked this claim as false.
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