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No building collapse or casualties in Dhaka’s Gabtoli due to the earthquake; the circulated photo is from Nepal

An earthquake was felt in various parts of the country at 10:38 AM on November 21st. According to the Meteorological Department, its magnitude on the Richter scale was $5.7$. Following this, a photo was circulated on social media claiming that a building collapse in Dhaka’s Gabtoli killed 3 people.

See posts circulated on Facebook with this claim: here (Archive), here (Archive), here (Archive).

Fact Check

The Rumor Scanner Team’s investigation found that this photo of a collapsed building is not from Dhaka’s Gabtoli. Rather, it is a picture of a building that collapsed during the powerful earthquake in Nepal in 2015. Furthermore, there was no building collapse or casualty incident in Dhaka’s Gabtoli during the November 21st earthquake.

In the course of this investigation, a report published in 2016 on the website of the US-based media The World was found. The image accompanying the report is similar to the photo circulated with the claim. The report states that the photo is of a building that collapsed during the devastating $7.8$ magnitude earthquake that occurred in Nepal in 2015.

The caption below the photo in the report further reveals that the image was captured by a photographer named Kishor Rana.

Further investigation into this matter found a report published on April 30, 2015, on the website of the British media The Guardian, titled ‘Nepal earthquake: a disaster that shows quakes don’t kill people, buildings do’. The report includes a photo of a building collapsed in the earthquake, which matches the color of the buildings and the surrounding environment in the circulated drone-view photo.

While there were reports of 3 deaths in Dhaka’s Armanitola due to the collapse of a roof railing and 1 death in Mugda during the November 21st earthquake, there were no reports of building collapse, leaning or casualties in Gabtoli. At least 10 people died across the country, including Dhaka, in this earthquake.

Therefore, the claim that 3 people were killed due to a building collapse in Dhaka’s Gabtoli during the November 21st earthquake is false.

Sources

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