A video of bike riders falling into a deep pit in Sri Lanka is shared, attributing it to India
A video going viral on social media (here, here, and here) shows two people travelling on a bike who suddenly fall into a deep pit in the middle of the road. The post claims that the incident occurred in India and criticises the government for the mishap. Let’s verify the truth behind the video in this article.
Claim: The video shows bike riders falling into a deep pit in the middle of a road in India.
Fact: The video is not from India. It shows an incident that took place in Colombo, Sri Lanka, in September 2023. According to media reports, a man and his daughter fell into a 16-foot-deep water-filled pit while riding a bike in the Gothatuwa area, after which they were safely rescued by locals. The road had flooded due to a burst water pipe. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
A reverse image search of keyframes from the viral video led us to multiple Sri Lankan media reports (here and here) from September 2023 featuring the same viral video. According to these reports, the video shows an incident that took place in Sri Lanka.
According to reports (here, here, and here), the incident took place in Colombo, Sri Lanka. A man was riding a bike to drop his daughter at school in the Gothatuwa area when they fell into a water-filled pit in the middle of the road. Bystanders later helped rescue both of them safely. The pit was reportedly about 16 feet deep, and the road had flooded due to a burst water pipe. Even several days after the incident, the pit remained unfilled. All this confirms that the incident took place in Sri Lanka, not India.
To sum up, a video of bike riders falling into a deep pit in Sri Lanka is shared, attributing it to India.