A purported video showing a collapsed amusement park ride (Giant Wheel/Ferris Wheel) is going viral on social media (here, here, here, here, and here). Many users are sharing this clip, claiming that it depicts a real incident in which 536 people lost their lives. Some posts (here, here) further allege that the video shows an amusement park ride collapse in Europe, reportedly killing 8 Indians and 12 others. In this article, we fact-check the claims made in these posts.
Claim: The video shows an amusement park ride collapse in which 536 people died.
Fact: This viral video does not depict a real incident; it was created using Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools. Several visual inconsistencies, typical of AI-generated content, can be observed in the footage. The video was originally shared by an Instagram page named ‘disasterstrucks1’ on 30 June 2025. The page frequently shares content created using AI. Moreover, AI content detection tools, including Google’s SynthID and Hive, have flagged the video as AI-generated. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
We conducted a search using relevant keywords to verify whether any such amusement park ride collapse had occurred recently, killing 536 people. However, we found no credible reports supporting the viral claim. If such an incident had actually taken place, it would undoubtedly have been reported by the media.
On closer examination, the viral video appears unrealistic and contains several inconsistencies. For instance, several men can be seen passing through the barricades (penetrating them). Such anomalies are commonly found in AI-generated or deepfake videos (here and here), suggesting that this video was likely created using AI.
A reverse image search of keyframes from the viral video revealed that this video (archived) was originally shared on an Instagram page named ‘disasterstrucks1’ on 30 June 2025. The bio of this page states that it shares AI-generated content. Upon reviewing the page, we found that it frequently posts content created using AI.
To further determine whether the viral video was AI-generated, we analysed it using AI content detection tools such as Hive and Google’s SynthID. Hive indicated a 89.7% likelihood of the video being AI-generated. Similarly, Google’s SynthID tool — a platform designed to detect content created by its AI models — confirmed that the video had indeed been generated using Google AI. Based on this evidence, it is clear that the viral video is AI-generated and does not depict a real incident.
To sum it up, this viral video showing an amusement park ride collapse is AI-generated.
