Fact check: Video of bright light in sky predates Turkey earthquake

Hannah Hudnall, USA TODAY
·2 min read

The claim: Video shows light in sky before Turkey earthquake

A Feb. 7 Instagram video features a screen recording of a TikTok video that shows an unusual white light shooting across the sky at night.

"Before the Turkey earthquakes they saw this strange light," reads the post's caption.

The Instagram video garnered more than 2,000 views in six days, while the original TikTok garnered more than 900,000 views in a week. Similar versions of the post have been shared on Instagram.

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Our rating: False

The video is unrelated to the earthquake in Turkey. It dates back to at least September 2022 and was filmed in Balkhash, Kazakhstan.

Video filmed in Kazakhstan before earthquake in Turkey

The video in question has no connection to the Feb. 6 earthquake that as of Feb. 14 had yielded a death toll of more than 40,000.

Though the origins of the video couldn't be verified, it was shared on Telegram as early as September 25, 2022, long before the earthquake struck Turkey.

It was filmed in a different country as well. As first reported by French broadcaster RTFB, the scenery of the video, including the nearby building, street signs and sidewalk, matches that of a street in Balkhash, Kazakhstan, according to Google Maps.

March 30, 2022: Ground personnel work at the landing site of the Soyuz MS-19 space capsule carrying the International Space Station (ISS) crew of Russian cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anton Shkaplerov and NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei, in a remote area outside Dzhezkazgan (Zhezkazgan), Kazakhstan.
March 30, 2022: Ground personnel work at the landing site of the Soyuz MS-19 space capsule carrying the International Space Station (ISS) crew of Russian cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anton Shkaplerov and NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei, in a remote area outside Dzhezkazgan (Zhezkazgan), Kazakhstan.

Fact check: Earthquake videos are from Nepal and Trinidad, not Turkey

USA TODAY has previously debunked similar videos falsely linked to the earthquake, including videos filmed in Saudi Arabia, Nepal and Trinidad that were tied to the disaster online.

USA TODAY reached out to the Instagram user who shared the post for comment. The TikTok user couldn't be reached.

The claim has been debunked by AP and Reuters as well.

Our fact-check sources:

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: Video of bright light in sky predates Turkey earthquake