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A video showing the dramatic moment a sinkhole swallowed a parked car has been viewed tens of thousands of times in Facebook posts which claim the incident happened in southern China. The claim is false: the footage, which has been shared around the world, was in fact filmed in Mumbai, India. The video was shared in this Facebook post on June 14, 2021, and has since been viewed more than 49,000 times. Just go to the Greater Bay Area, the traditional Chinese-language caption reads, alongside a sick emoji. The Greater Bay Area comprises China’s two Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macao, and nine municipalities in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong. The footage shows a car in a parking lot slowly plunging into a sinkhole. Screenshot taken on June 16, 2021, of the misleading Facebook post The same video and caption have been also posted here and here on Facebook. However, the claim is false; the video was filmed in India, not in China. A Google reverse image search using keyframes extracted from the video found the same footage in this article published by India Today on June 13, 2021. The article is headlined Viral video shows sinkhole swallowing parked car at housing society in Mumbai. A parked car fell into a sealed well at a housing society in Mumbai's Ghatkopar on Sunday [June 13]. A viral video of the incident, recorded by the vehicle owner, shows a section of the concrete parking area caving in and subsequently swallowing the four-wheeler, the article reads. Below are screenshot comparisons between the video shared in the misleading posts (L) and the video embedded in India Today’s article (R): Screenshot comparisons between the video shared in the misleading posts (L) and the video embedded in the article (R) The article also includes photos and a video showing the car being pulled out of the sinkhole later on the same day, adding that no one was injured in the incident. Various clues from India Today’s articles suggest the footage was filmed in India, such as Hindi-language seen on a wall next to the sinkhole. Screenshot from India Today article showing Hindi writing, taken on June 17, 2021 The owner of the vehicle Pankaj Mehta was quoted by Indian media saying he became aware of the fate of his car when bystanders raised the alarm. Children started shouting that the car was going down. I rushed down immediately, the car was half inside the well, he told India Today TV. The car was parked on a concrete slab covering a disused well, which subsided due to heavy rain, police told ANI news agency. The footage was shared by news media around the world, including the BBC and The Independent .
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