The devastating Himalayan glacial floods in Nepal and Tibet in August 2026 caused widespread destruction and mounting death tolls, but a video showing a mare being pulled out of a mudslide is not from the recent disaster. The footage actually depicts a rescue that took place in Venezuela in November 2024.
"A flood in Nepal accompanied by a landslide trapped a horse, but it miraculously survived and was rescued!" reads a Threads post in traditional Chinese shared on August 30.
The post includes a video showing an animal trapped in mud, with several people clearing dirt using tools before the animal is pulled out with heavy machinery.
The video was shared in Chinese on X with similar claims. It has also spread in English and Spanish across social media.
At least 1,280 people have been killed and more than 5,500 missing after a gigantic wave of freezing water, rocks and debris wiped out entire settlements and carved a path of destruction across Nepal ( archived link).
Search and rescue teams are still carrying out operations despite difficult conditions and unstable terrain.
While there have been reports of animals pulled to safety after the deadly floods, the circulating video has no connection to the disaster (archived here and here).
A reverse image search using keyframes from the clip led to a news report by UK outlet The Mirror on December 3, 2024 that published pictures showing the same scene ( archived link).
According to the report, the mare in the photos was trapped by a landslide-made hole in the city of La Grita, located in the northwestern state of Táchira, Venezuela, before firefighters pulled it to safety.
It also included several pictures credited to "@bomberosjaureguilagrita". A keyword search on Instagram found the account, run by the La Grita fire department, that published the pictures used by the report on November 17, 2024, along with other photos and a video showing the rescue ( archived link).
Other outlets -- including the UK-based What's The Jam website and El Diario -- also published visuals showing the rescue at the time (archived here and here).
The mare survived without major injuries.
AFP Fact Check has previously debunked other misinformation about the Tibet-Nepal flash flood.