After deadly floods tore through the Nepal-Tibet border in August 2026, social media posts recirculated unrelated footage from India falsely claiming they showed the calamity. The videos in fact depict flash floods that struck India's northern state of Uttarakhand in August 2025 and 2026.
"The scene of devastation in Nepal is such that every new video that surfaces seems more horrifying than the last one," reads the Hindi-language X post published on August 27, 2026.
The post includes a video of a flash flood gushing through a valley, damaging properties and infrastructure.
Another X post from August 26 shares a clip of raging floodwater, with several vehicles swept away by a torrent of mud.
"Disaster in Nepal, Terrifying footage," it reads.
Similar posts spread elsewhere in different languages including Bengali and English on Facebook, Instagram and X.
The videos surfaced after catastrophic flooding and landslides on the Nepal-Tibet border unleashed waves of water and debris that have killed more than 470 people and left upwards of 1,400 missing ( archived link).
The surge of water hit villages and towns on the path of two rivers -- Bhote Koshi and Trishuli in Nepal.
Many of the missing are foreign tourists, including trekkers in the Himalayan nation, as well as scores of Hindu pilgrims to Tibet's sacred snow-capped Mount Kailash.
The US Geological Survey (USGS) said the disaster was caused by a glacial collapse that triggered a vast flow of icy debris.
Climate change is causing glaciers to melt worldwide, increasing the risks of glacial lake floods and glacial collapses.
But the circulating clips are unrelated and were in fact filmed in India.
A reverse image search on Google of the first video using keyframes, followed by keyword searches, surfaced an Instagram video published by the weather platform AccuWeather on August 5, 2025 ( archived link).
"Dharali, India," its caption says -- referring to a village in the Uttarakhand state -- with the footage credited to visual licensing platform Reuters Connect ( archived link).
The falsely shared footage also corresponds to Google Earth Satellite imagery of India's Dharali ( archived link).
Indian officials say at least 70 people were killed after a deadly wall of icy water swept away the Himalayan town and buried it in mud ( archived link).
A separate reverse image search of the second video led to footage from British video news agency Newsflare distributed by AFP on August 10, 2026, with a caption saying it shows flash flooding in Uttarakhand triggered by a sudden downpour ( archived link).
Another video from Newsflare also distributed by AFP shows the same scene from another angle.
Indian media organisation NDTV reported that flash floods struck Uttarakhand's Tamak region, India on the day, after a heavy cloudburst sent a destructive mix of water, mud, and debris surging through the Niti valley ( archived link).
AFP has debunked other false claims related to the Nepal floods.