In the aftermath of the deadly floods in Nepal that have killed at least 1,000 people, old videos of flooding and mudslides filmed outside the Himalayan nation have circulated in social media posts that falsely link them to the disaster. The latest includes a compilation that incorporates footage from past disasters in Russia, Japan, Indonesia and Argentina. Searches for the original clips and geolocation show they in fact are not linked to the deadly flooding in August 2026.
"Natural disaster in Nepal, hundreds of tourists go missing," reads an Urdu-language X post shared by an account with more than 722,000 followers on August 27.
The attached 46-second montage shows mudslides crashing through buildings and bridges, with superimposed Urdu-language text saying more than 270 people had been killed and 1,500 were missing at the time.
The death toll from the devastating Himalayan glacial floods crossed the grim 1,000 mark on September 1, as Chinese and Nepali teams searched for survivors including dozens feared trapped in hydropower tunnels ( archived link).
Nearly 4,500 people are missing after the gigantic wave of freezing water, rocks and debris triggered by a high-altitude glacial collapse roared downstream on August 26, wiping out entire settlements and carving a path of destruction across Nepal.
The US Geological Survey said the disaster was caused by a glacial collapse, sending a wall of water and debris downstream.
AFP has fact-checked other pictures and videos falsely linked to the Nepal-Tibet floods after the disaster.
The circulating footage has spread on Pakistan-based accounts on X and on India-based Facebook accounts, where it has racked up more than 551,000 views.
But the clips in the compilation in fact do not show the disaster in Nepal.
A Google reverse image search found a mirrored version of the first clip showing a mudslide shared on Instagram on July 31, 2025, with a caption saying it was filmed in Tyrnyauz in Russia's Caucasus region on the day ( archived link).
A keyword search also found a video filmed from a different angle shared on the Telegram messaging app on the day showing the same scene ( archived link).
Russian state-owned news service RIA reported that heavy rain caused a mudslide that day in the region, and authorities have evacuated local residents in some areas of the town ( archived link).
Another reverse image search using keyframes from the clip showing floodwaters rushing down from a hill led to the same footage shared by Japanese outlet Sankei News on YouTube on July 3, 2021 ( archived link).
AFP was able to geolocate the area shown in the video using Google Street View images ( archived link).
Torrents of mud crashed through part of the town following days of heavy rain at the time and killed 27 people ( archived link).
A separate reverse image search found the video of a current battering a bridge was published by British news agency Newsflare on June 11, 2020, with a caption saying it shows the Molintogupo Bridge in the Gorontalo province in Indonesia collapsing ( archived link).
The clip in the circulating posts had been mirrored. The state-owned news agency Antara published a picture of the bridge days after it collapsed ( archived link).
The outlet also reported at the time that flooding in some parts of the province affected some 1,150 people, with floodwater reaching nearly 1.5 metres (4.9 feet) ( archived link).
AFP traced the clip in the montage showing a bridge collapse to a TikTok post that shared a longer version on December 25, 2023, with a caption saying it shows a bridge in the Poman Department in the Catamarca province in Argentina ( archived link).
Local media reported that heavy rains in the region caused a landslide that swept away the footbridge, which was completed just over a month before it was destroyed ( archived link).
The provincial government published a picture on its Facebook account on November 6, 2023 showing the same bridge after it was completed ( archived link).