The Yamuna in Delhi rose above the danger mark on 3 September 2025 after heavy monsoon rains and the release of water from the Hathnikund barrage. This led to flooding in low-lying areas such as ITO, Yamuna Bazaar, and Mayur Vihar, forcing evacuations and large-scale rescue operations. The river reached a peak of 207.48 metres on 4 September before beginning to recede on 5 September, allowing residents to gradually return home (here, here and here).
In this backdrop, a compilation of videos (here, here, here, and here) has gone viral on social media, purportedly showing scenes from the Delhi floods of people running in the streets, overflowing waters sweeping away bridges, and submerged vehicles. Let’s examine the truth behind these videos.
Claim: The compilation of videos shows people fleeing through streets, bridges being washed away, and submerged vehicles, and they show the September 2025 floods in Delhi.
Fact: The first video is from protests in Juja, Kenya (June 2025). The second video has been online since 12 July 2025, and the third, fourth, and fifth videos since 17 August 2025. All of them predate the Delhi floods. Hence, the claim is MISLEADING.
To verify the first video showing people running on the streets, we performed a reverse image search on Google. This led us to the same clip uploaded on TikTok on 26 June 2025, where it was captioned in an African language as a protest. Further, comments under the post mentioned that the incident took place in Juja, Kenya.
A keyword search with the date led us to several reports about the Juja, Kenya protest (here, here and here). According to these reports, the protest was part of a larger movement that began in 2024 after the Kenyan government introduced a controversial financial bill. At that time, several people lost their lives. In memory of those victims, demonstrations resumed this year after the deaths of a teacher and a blogger in police custody. The protests, which started in Nairobi and later spread to several parts of Kenya, saw large participation from the youth and came to be known as the Gen Z protests.
During our search, we found several other videos from the same time period, many of which showed similar scenes (here and here). In one such video, shared on Twitter, it was specifically mentioned that the location was near Juja Police Station.
Using clues from similar posts, we geo-located the area on Google Street View. A side-by-side comparison of the viral video and the Street View imagery confirms that the viral video was filmed in Juja, Kenya, not Delhi.
While verifying the second video, we found that it had previously been circulated with claims linking it to multiple places, including Delhi, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Pakistan, Ethiopia, and Nepal. However, the video has been available on the internet since 12 July 2025, well before the Delhi floods. This confirms that the video is unrelated to the recent flood incident in Delhi.
The third, fourth, and fifth videos have been circulated together multiple times, with some posts claiming they are from Manali and others attributing them to other places (here, here, here and here). However, their exact location remains unclear. However, these clips have been available online since 17 August 2025, which predates the Delhi flood incident, confirming that they also have no connection to the recent floods in Delhi.
To sum up, a compilation of old and unrelated videos showing protests in Kenya, overflowing rivers, and damaged bridges is being shared as visuals of the September 2025 Delhi floods.
