Old and unrelated photos and videos are falsely shared as those from the March 2025 Myanmar-Bangkok earthquake
A strong earthquake of 7.7 magnitude hit Myanmar on 28 March 2025, with tremors felt as far as Bangkok, the capital of Thailand. The epicenter was in Mandalay city, causing heavy damage. Aftershocks were reported in northeastern India, Bangladesh, and China’s Yunnan province. The earthquake damaged many buildings and roads in Myanmar and nearby areas. Rescue teams are working to understand the full impact. Meanwhile, several videos and photos are going viral on social media, claiming to show the earthquake in Myanmar and Bangkok. Let’s verify the claims made in these posts.
Claim: Visuals show the earthquake that hit Myanmar-Bangkok on 28 March 2025.
Fact: The viral photo of a child trapped under rubble was taken from a TikTok video posted in October 2024, where the child was not trapped but looking through a hole in the wall and playing. The first video, showing a massive cloud of water moving toward residential buildings, was originally uploaded in January 2025 and does not show real visuals, as it is an AI-generated video created by a visual effects artist. The second video, showing people being swept away by rooftop water, is from China, not Bangkok. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
Photo
The viral social media post (here, here, and here) claims that a young child was trapped under the rubble of a collapsed building in Mandalay, Myanmar, along with a photo as evidence.
A reverse image search of keyframes from the video led us to the same video shared on X, stating that “This doesn’t showcase a Palestinian child trapped under rubble. More videos, uploaded by the same person showcase the girl was not under rubble but looking through a hole in the wall. Additionally, nothing on the account indicates the origin of the mother and child.” In the comment section, we found users sharing the source link to the viral video (here and here).
Based on this clue, we discovered that the viral video was posted on 26 October 2024 on the TikTok (archived) account “userftdvvrl92i.” We found several similar videos featuring the same child, showing her peering through a hole in the wall. Some of the videos also captured the child on the other side of the wall, where she was seen playing (here and here).
Factly had previously debunked the same visuals when they went viral with the claim that a Palestinian girl was trapped under the rubble, waiting for help.
Video 1
The viral video (here, here, and here) claims to show an earthquake in Bangkok, featuring a massive cloud of water rising from the sea and moving toward residential buildings. Sharing the video, a user wrote, “Shocking Bangkok Earthquake Footage Caught on Camera.”
A reverse image search of keyframes from the video led us to the same video uploaded on Instagram on 08 January 2025. It was shared with the caption, “Volcanic eruption off the coast of Italy.” The video was posted by an Instagram account named stat.us.ai, which, according to its bio, belongs to a professional visual effects artist. The account holder has created and shared several similar AI-generated videos (here and here).
To verify further, we used the Hive.ai detector, which indicated with 98.9% confidence that the image was AI-generated.
Video 2
This viral video (here, here, and here) shows people being swept away by water from a rooftop. The post claims that a massive amount of water poured down from a rooftop pool after a powerful earthquake struck. It further claims that the footage is from Bangkok’s Chinatown, where the quake allegedly hit.
A reverse image search of key frames from the video led to multiple reports (here, here, here, and here) from 28 March 2025, featuring a longer version of the viral clip. The reports stated that a rooftop infinity pool in China collapsed during a 7.7 magnitude earthquake in Myanmar, sweeping water onto the streets. The quake, which killed over 150 people, sent shockwaves across Myanmar, Thailand, and China. Strong tremors were reported in Yunnan province, where two people were injured in Ruili.
The extended footage shows a board written in Chinese, confirming that the video captures the effects of the earthquake in China, not Bangkok.
To sum up, old and unrelated photos and videos are falsely shared as those from the March 2025 Myanmar earthquake.