By Sk Badiruddin
A photo showing a dog sitting near its owner, who is trapped under the rubble, is being shared online falsely claiming it shows a heart wrenching scene from the recent earthquake that struck Türkiye and Syria.
BOOM found that the image has existed online on a stock photo site since October, 2018, and is unrelated to the recent earthquake.
A powerful earthquake that hit Türkiye and Syria on February 6, 2023 has so far claimed 16,000 lives with the death toll expected to climb further. Search and rescue teams are battling freezing temperatures, rain and snow to find more survivors.
While horrific visuals of devastation are emerging from the quake, several old and unrelated videos are also going viral.
The viral image shows an arm of a person stuck under a heap of rubble and a Labrador dog sitting close to the person's arm.
The image has been shared on Facebook with a caption in English reads as, “The dog stands beside its owner while waiting for help.”
View two such Facebook postshere and here.
The image is also being shared on Facebook with a captionin Bangla.
Also Read:News Outlets Share Old Photo From Ukraine As Türkiye Earthquake Victim
Fact Check
BOOM ran a reverse image search on Google and found that the image was old and not related to the recent earthquake that struck Türkiye and Syria.
We found the same image on stock photo site Alamy, which stated it was taken on 18 October 2018, and captioned the image as, “Dog looking for injured people in ruins after earthquake.”
The same image was also archived on January 04, 2019, on another stock photo site, istockphoto.
The photo appears to be a staged photo as it does not provide any description of the place and context (i.e. earthquake) in which the photo was shot.
Both sites have credited the image to Jaroslav Noska. We found Noska is a Czech-based photographer. You can find more detail about Noska’s work on his site.
BOOM has reached to Noska over email. The story will be updated if we get a reply.
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