As flash floods ravaged India’s Himalayan area in July and August, footage of a truck narrowly escaping particles from a mountain unfold in social media posts claiming it confirmed the northern state of Himachal Pradesh. Nevertheless, the video beforehand circulated in stories a few landslide in West Sumatra in 2024, and visible proof confirms the clip is from Indonesia.
“Landslide in Chamba: Truck narrowly escapes, driver cheats dying. Watching the video of this landslide in Chamba, it is clear the motive force’s luck was on his facet,” reads a part of a Hindi-language Fb publish shared August 1, 2025.
The video, which racked up greater than 132,000 views, reveals a truck escaping particles falling off a mountain.
Screenshot of the false X publish captured August 11, 2025, with a crimson X added by AFP
The clip circulated with related claims in posts on Fb, Instagram, and Threads as torrential rain hit Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand states in India’s northern Himalayan area in July and August, killing at the least 69 individuals (archived hyperlink).
On August 5, a flash flood driving a torrent of mud smashed right into a city in northern Uttarakhand state, killing at the least 4 individuals with round 100 others lacking (archived hyperlink). Scores of individuals die every year in the course of the wet season as a result of flash floods and landslides throughout India (archived hyperlink).
However the clip really reveals a landslide on the Trans-Sumatra Freeway in Indonesia’s West Sumatra province.
A Google reverse picture search of keyframes from the clip discovered an extended video printed Might 20, 2024 on YouTube, which credit Reuters and the video company Newsflare (archived hyperlink).
The clip, titled “Truck escapes landslide after extended heavy rainfall in Indonesia”, was flipped horizontally within the false social media posts.
Screenshot comparability of the clip shared within the false publish (L) and the video printed on YouTube
The unique video printed by Newsflare is captioned: “A tanker truck loaded with CPO narrowly escaped being crushed by a landslide in West Sumatra in Indonesia on Might 17. This incident was witnessed by residents who have been additionally passing by the world (archived hyperlink).”
The caption provides that no casualties have been reported. Media shops CNN Indonesia and SINDOnews printed the clip in stories in regards to the incident (archived right here and right here).
Hours of heavy rain triggered massive volcanic rocks to roll down one in all Indonesia’s most energetic volcanoes into two districts on Sumatra island on Might 11, 2024, whereas flooding inundated roads, properties and mosques (archived hyperlink).
The dying toll from flash floods and chilly lava move from a volcano in western Indonesia was reported at 41, with 17 extra lacking on Might 13.
An AFP journalist in Indonesia confirmed the blue-and-white car seen escaping the landslide is a gasoline tanker operated by the Indonesian state-owned oil and pure gasoline firm Pertamina, which has beforehand commented on the colour-coding (archived hyperlink).
AFP has beforehand debunked different claims associated to India’s monsoon.
