Old photo from Turkey falsely shared as a building damaged in Bangladesh’s November 21 earthquake

An earthquake was felt across the country around 10:38 AM on November 21st. It has been reported that at least 10 people were killed and over six hundred were injured. Following this, a photo has been widely circulated on the internet with the caption, “5.5 High-Magnitude Earthquake Shakes Dhaka, the Capital of Bangladesh.”

See some posts circulated on Facebook: here (Archive), here (Archive), here (Archive), here (Archive), here (Archive).

See some posts circulated on Instagram: here (Archive), here (Archive).

Fact Check

The Rumor Scanner Team’s investigation found that the widely circulated photo is not of a building leaning due to the November 21st earthquake in Bangladesh. In fact, it is an old photograph from Turkey, where two earthquakes struck on the same day in February 2023. This photo of a leaning building in Turkey is being circulated with the claim that it is from Bangladesh.

The investigation uncovered a photo on the website of the photo stock agency Getty Images. This photo is an exact match for the circulated image.

The caption of the Getty Images photo indicates that the leaning building is in a city in Turkey. The buildings in the photo were damaged by the earthquake that occurred in February 2023.

This means the circulated photo is nearly three-quarters of a year old.

A report published on Al Jazeera’s website on February 25, 2023, states that the first earthquake that struck southeastern Turkey and northern Syria on February 6, 2023, measured $7.7$ in magnitude, and a second earthquake measuring $7.6$ followed shortly after. More than 50,000 people died in the Syria-Turkey earthquake after the two successive tremors.

Therefore, the photo of a leaning building damaged by the earthquake in Turkey in February 2023 is being circulated as a photo of a building damaged in the November 21st earthquake in Bangladesh; which is completely false.

Sources

• Getty Images: Stock Photo
• Al Jazeera: Death toll climbs above 50,000 after Turkey, Syria earthquakes