Fact Check: Heart-stopping video of landslide goes viral with wrong claim

A video of a motorist managing a narrow escape from a landslide is going viral on social media with the claim that the landslide struck the Guwahati-Shillong Road on May 22.

India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found that the video is from Sukanagara in Indonesia where a landslide struck on April 9 this year.

The archived version of the post can be seen here (http://archive.today/zlUM1). This video is quite viral on Facebook and Twitter.

AFWA probe

Reverse-searching one of the frames of the viral video, we found a longer version of the clip on YouTube. It was uploaded on April 9, 2020, with a caption in Indonesian that roughly translates to, "Landslide in Sukanagara-Cianjur South on April 9, 2020."

Taking a clue from this, we ran a search on the Internet using keywords and found many reports in local news websites and YouTube channels.

According to these reports, the landslide occurred on the Sukanagara highway, precisely, across the Cianjur Regency, in Indonesia, on April 9.

We also found a tweet by Meghalaya Police confirming that the video is from Indonesia and not a national highway in Meghalaya. The tweet reads: "A video clip of a Landslide which is being circulated on social media is from settlements of Chiangjur & Sukanagara in Indonesia, NOT from National Highway of Meghalaya. We request citizens not to share or circulate the video clip with false content or caption."

#FakeNewsAlert

A video clip of a Landslide which is being circulated on social media is from settlements of Chiangjur & Sukanagara in Indonesia, NOT from National Highway of Meghalaya.

We request citizens not to share or circulate the video clip with false content or caption. pic.twitter.com/evQ3UvZm0F — Meghalaya Police (@MeghalayaPolice) May 21, 2020

Therefore, it is clear that the video of the landslide is from Indonesia and not the Guwahati-Shillong Road as claimed in the viral post.