As heavy rains lashed southwest China in early July, a video was misleadingly shared in posts claiming it confirmed the roof of an airport in Chongqing collapsing. The footage in reality reveals a piece of ceiling collapsing at a procuring centre within the megacity, not an airport.
“Airport roof crashed down in Chongquing (sic), China’s third largest industrialized metropolis,” reads the caption of a clip shared on X on July 9, 2025.
The clip, which was seen greater than 3.3 million instances, reveals a piece of ceiling abruptly giving means and drenching the ground beneath in dark-coloured water. A number of individuals might be seen filming and stepping again because the liquid begins to unfold.
“China is a minimum of 900 years forward of India,” provides the caption, in an obvious mocking reference to Indian opposition chief Rahul Gandhi saying that “China is 10 years forward” of India (archived hyperlink).
The put up circulated as China endured a summer time of utmost climate, with downpours battering a lot of the nation’s south for weeks (archived hyperlink). State media reported that the latest deluge pressured the evacuation of 556 individuals in Chongqing, and triggered a landslide in close by Sichuan province.
Screenshot of the deceptive X put up captured on July 24, 2025, with a crimson X added by AFP
The clip was additionally shared in related Fb, Threads and X posts .
Whereas the footage was filmed in Chongqing, it doesn’t present an airport within the megacity.
As of July 25, there have been no official experiences of the roof collapsing at any airports in Chongqing.
A reverse picture search on Chinese language search engine Baidu utilizing keyframes from the misleadingly shared clip led to the similar footage printed on Weibo by the Chongqing-based Sanxiang Metropolis Day by day on July 8 (archived hyperlink).
“Within the afternoon of July 8, some netizens reported on social platforms that the ceiling of the B1 ground of Paradise Stroll procuring centre in Chongqing abruptly collapsed,” the put up reads.
Screenshot comparability of the misleadingly shared clip on X (left) and the video posted by the Sanxiang Metropolis Day by day (proper)
Comparable clips shared elsewhere on Weibo and Douyin additionally say they had been filmed on the procuring centre in Chongqing (archived right here and right here).
Screenshot comparability between the misleadingly shared clip (left) and an identical video posted on Weibo (proper), with corresponding components highlighted by AFP
The Paradise Stroll procuring centre mentioned on its official Weibo web page the collapse was brought on by sudden heavy rainfall on July 8 (archived hyperlink). It added there have been no accidents and buyers had been evacuated from the realm.
