Video from Spain is passed off as Tauktae Cyclone in Gujarat - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
May 21, 2021
A video accompanying a post is being widely shared on social media claiming that the visuals of huge waves crashing onto the shore are related to Cyclone Tauktae in Somnath, Gujarat. Let us fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Visuals of Cyclone Tauktae from Somnath, Gujarat.
Fact: The video, according to many stock photos and earlier videos posted online, are from Spain. The visuals in the video are present online even before Cyclone Tauktae had hit Gujarat. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
When a reverse image search of the screenshots of the video along with keywords is performed, we found some stock images on the website of iStock, resembling the ones in the post, with the title that the images were from San Sebastian Donostia, Spain. The images can be seen here, here, and here.
Taking this clue, we searched for any videos like the one in the post by using San Sebastian Waves as the keyword in google, we found a similar video uploaded in a website on 14 November 2019 with the title Giant waves in San Sebastian as Storm Bernardo hits Spain’s Basque Country.
There is even a YouTube video uploaded by the channel Luis Kapero on 24 January 2018. The video is titled Giant Waves Festival In San Sebastian- Big Waves in San Sebastian. The video is quite similar to the one being shared as from Gujarat and has the same background. The description of the video says that huge waves were breaking against the Paseo Nuevo in San Sebastian.
Taking a cue from the YouTube video where it was mentioned about Paseo Nuevo, we looked at google street view of the place. As it turns out, one of the screenshots of the video have a similar background to the one in the Google street view. The hill in the background and the rocks placed on the footpath seem to match.
When we went further back in google street view, the railings separating the water from land and the streetlight seem to be similar to one of the screenshots of the video posted. Only the street view is in a different direction to the one in the video.
Cyclone Tauktae made landfall in Gujarat between Diu and Una around 9 pm on 17 May 2021 and caused damage to infrastructure and huge number of trees were uprooted according to the news article. Some of the visuals posted by news outlets about the havoc created by Cyclone Tauktae in Gujarat can be seen here, here, and here. Hence, the video posted is not from Gujarat but seems to be from Spain.
To sum it up, video from Spain is passed off as Tauktae Cyclone in Gujarat.