A 7.7-magnitude earthquake that struck off Indonesia's Flores island in August 2026 triggered tsunami waves, but a video circulating on social media that purportedly shows waves crashing into the seaside town of Labuan Bajo predates the powerful quake. The video in fact shows waves during a typhoon that hit the Philippines in November 2025.
"Tsunami hits Labuan Bajo!!! The moment when a tsunami struck Labuan Bajo following a magnitude 7.7 earthquake," says part of the superimposed Indonesian-language text on a TikTok video shared on August 16, 2026.
Labuan Bajo, a seaside town, is a popular tourist destination on the west coast of Indonesia's Flores island.
The video shows large waves breaking on the shoreline, filmed from a nearby rooftop.
The same video was also shared in similar TikTok, Instagram and X posts after the powerful 7.7-magnitude earthquake that struck off Flores island in eastern Indonesia on August 15 ( archived link).
The quake killed at least 70 people, injured 1,100 and left some 40,000 people displaced, according to the national disaster agency, BNPB, a sharp jump from the figure of 12,800 provided on August 17 ( archived link). It also triggered a tsunami warning for waves ranging from 0.5 metres to three metres (1.6 to 9.8 feet) ( archived link).
Indonesia and neighbouring countries experience frequent earthquakes due to their location in the Pacific "Ring of Fire" -- an arc of intense seismic activity stretching from Japan through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin.
Flores was struck by a 7.7-magnitude earthquake in 1992, which triggered a tsunami and resulted in around 2,500 deaths.
Also among Indonesia's history of deadly quakes is a devastating 9.1-magnitude tremor in 2004 that struck off the coast of Sumatra and triggered a tsunami that killed more than 220,000 throughout the region, including about 170,000 in Indonesia. The Boxing Day tragedy was one of the deadliest natural disasters in recorded history.
While Indonesia's weather agency recorded tsunami waves in some coastal regions -- including waves measuring 0.36 metres (1.18 feet) in Labuan Bajo -- the video circulating on social media was not filmed after the August 15 quake ( archived link).
A reverse image search using keyframes from the falsely shared video found that the footage had previously been posted on Facebook on November 9, 2025 ( archived link).
"Storm Surge or Tsunami," says its Tagalog-language caption, which also indicates it was filmed in Dingalan, a municipality in the Philippine province of Aurora.
It also includes the hashtag "UwanPH" -- Uwan was the local name for Super Typhoon Fung-wong, which slammed into the country's eastern seaboard on November 9, 2025 ( archived link). At least 30 people were killed by the storm, which also displaced 1.4 million people (archived here and here).
People can be heard in the background speaking in Tagalog, telling others to get down from the building.
The footage also corresponds to Google Street View imagery from the area ( archived link).
Old, unrelated footage frequently resurface when natural disasters strike Indonesia.