Fact Check: The Kupwara ‘earthquake disaster’ pic on social media is actually from Turkey

The Indian Express in its investigation found that there has been no loss of life in the earthquake in Karnah, Kupwara. And that the image of the building that is being widely shared is from Turkey, where a killer 7.8 earthquake struck on February 6.

Claim: Facebook page ‘Toxic king 112’ shared the viral image and wrote, “3 people killed in Karnah Kupwara. More details awaited…”

A page ‘My kashmir’ too shared this image with the same claim.

Another group, Kashmir news updates, had also shared the same post.

Investigation: The Indian Express started the investigation of this viral image using a simple Google Reverse Image method. We found this image in the NBC News article titled, ‘Scenes of grief and destruction after devastating earthquakes in Turkey and Syria’.

That caption said, ‘A damaged building leans dangerously in Kahramanmaras, Turkey’ and the credit for the picture was given to Firat Ozdemir/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images.

We also found this image in an article by westobserver.com which said, ‘7.8 magnitude earthquake strikes southern Turkey’.

We also found a post on the Facebook page, ‘The Kashmir Essence’. It said, ‘A Fake Picture Circulated on Social Media Related to Earthquake In Kashmir Valley: A photo which has been circulated by some pages are groups are actually from turkey Earthquake’.

We found a tweet by Deputy Commissioner Kupwara, Dr Doifode Sagar Dattatray. The tweet said, ‘I am myself in Karnah. There is no loss of any life or property. The News spread on social media platforms regarding the 3 deaths, is fake, concocted and baseless. Please don’t spread such fake news.’

It was hence clear that the picture is from the earthquake in Turkey and not Kupwara in Jammu and Kashmir.

Conclusion: The viral image of a building damaged in the earthquake is from Turkey and not from Karnah in Kupwara district, in Jammu and Kashmir. The earthquake did not cause any deaths in Karnah.