After Mount Anak Krakatau in Indonesia erupted in early September 2026, stranding hundreds of thousands of passengers in the country's airports, social media posts resurfaced an unrelated video from Guatemala falsely claiming it depicted the eruption. The video was filmed in June and shows the eruption of Volcán de Fuego overlooking Guatemala's southwestern city of Antigua.
"Breaking news: Indonesian volcano erupts. Eleven mountaineers were killed," reads a simplified Chinese X post shared on September 9, 2026.
The clip shows a man and his companions standing on a mountain as it emits black smoke and molten hot lava rocks.
Similar posts were shared on Douyin, Bilibili, Sina and Weibo in Chinese as well as in English and Arabic after Mount Anak Krakatau, located in the strait separating the islands of Java and Sumatra, erupted multiple times in September ( archived link).
Indonesia's main airport and several other air travel hubs halted nearly 3,000 flights due to the eruption, stranding more than 340,000 passengers, before gradually resuming on September 8 after authorities cleared volcanic ash from critical infrastructure ( archived here).
Eight people, including five journalists, went missing after they set out on a speedboat to cover the eruption ( archived link).
However, the video was not filmed in Indonesia.
A reverse image search on Google using screenshots found the same footage published on TikTok on June 17 ( archived link).
"As soon as I've survived the volcano, I'll send it to you, mom #Acatenango #VolcánDeFuego #Guatemala," its Spanish-language caption reads.
Volcán de Fuego, located in Antigua, Guatemala, erupted in June 2026, as well as two months later, forcing over 1,700 people to flee the area (archived here and here).
Guatemala's National Coordination for Disaster Reduction said on June 17 the volcano recorded explosions that "generated columns of gas and ash that rose up to 4,800 metres (15,700 feet) above sea level" ( archived link).
The other videos posted by the same account feature the same man seen in the falsely shared clip (archived here and here).
The user also posted another clip of him on the same mountain in identical outfits ( archived link).
AFP has reached out to the user for confirmation, but no replies were forthcoming.
The clip was also published by the Spanish news outlet Diario El Centro on its Instagram account on June 19 ( archived link).
The mountain's landscape in the video also matches that of another clip captured by another Instagram user during the same eruption ( archived link).
A geotagged video of Volcán de Fuego from Google Maps matches the scenery in the false post ( archived link).
AFP has previously debunked other false claims related to the volcanic eruption in Indonesia.