Claim: A video circulating on social media allegedly depicts an excavator crane crashing into a ditch while carrying out relief work in Murree following a disastrous road blockage that left 22 dead.
Fact: The video does show a crane overturning and slipping into a ditch, but it is from 2020 and was not taken in Murree.
On 8 January 2022, a video surfaced on social media showing an excavator crane slipping down a snow-covered slope and crashing into the woods below.
Multiple people and pages shared the video as a standalone post on Facebook, generating thousands of likes. The clip was also shared on YouTube by numerous individuals with the claim that it was shot during the January 2022 Murree tragedy, when heavy overnight snowfall caused traffic jams that trapped tourists in the popular hill station, leaving 22 dead.
The video starts with people speaking about a white jeep that crashed into a tree after sliding down the snowy road. One person is then heard asking the others to back up as the crane moves to clear up the mess; however, as the crane turns around, it also skids and crashes into the woods below.
Fact or Fiction?
The video, in fact, is from two years ago, 8 January 2020 to be exact, when a jeep and crane slipped into the woods below a road in Malam Jabba. Malam Jabba is located in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, while Murree is in Punjab; the distance via road between the two is 334.3 km and 280 km via the M-1 and M-15 motorways, respectively.
The 2020 Malam Jabba incident was reported on by some media outlets and the video was also shared by afew Facebook pages at the time. A report published 9 January 2020 by Daily Jang and titled, “مالم جبہ،برف سے پھسل کر گاڑی اور کرین کھائی میں جا گری,” mentions the incident. It was also reported on by Mingora, Swat-based ZamaSwat, Nawaiwaqt, and Swat News.
The excavator crane had been called to the scene after the jeep slipped down the slope owing to an absence of chained tyres. No loss of life was reported.
Moreover, AFP Fact Check — also an International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) signatory — reported in its fact-checking article that a longer, over-two-minute-long version of the clip was uploaded by Newsflare, global viral video marketplace. It was published on Yahoo! News and captioned, “Excavator tumbles from roadside edge while attempting to rescue car after snowfall brings dangerous conditions in Pakistan.”
Virality
Soch Fact Check conducted a CrowdTangle analysis using the following terms:
- “Murree crane”
- “مری کرین”
While the English search term has received just 124 interactions across 29 posts, the one in Urdu garnered significant traction, with 22,215 interactions across 178 posts.
On Twitter, NewsOne TV posted the video on its verified Twitter account, @newsonepk, stating that the crane crashed in Murree during a rescue operation following the blizzard. The same clip was also shared on the channel’s verified YouTube channel, where it was viewed by over 1,000 people. Another account, @GeoPolUpdate, claimed the incident occurred near Nathia Gali and that the operator was still inside but survived the fall.
Samaa TV’s English-language news account on Twitter, @SamaaEnglish, also shared the clip but later clarified “that it is an old video”. The verified Facebook account of the Urdu-language Samaa TV also shared a link to a story, with the following headline:
“ویڈیو: مری میں ریسکیوآپریشن کے دوران کرین کھائی میں جاگری”
[Video: Crane falls into ditch during rescue operation in Murree]
Caption: (Top-L) A misleading tweet by Samaa English that the outlet later clarified; (Top-R) ‘Samaa English’ mentioned the clarification in a video on its Facebook page; (Centre-L) Screenshot from CrowdTangle search results that shows Samaa TV’s post was shared at 6:52 PM on 8 January 2022; (Centre-R) The timestamp of 8 January 2018 above Samaa TV’s post is incorrect. (Bottom-L) The initial, misleading story on Samaa TV’s Urdu-language website; (Bottom-R) The rectified Murree crane story on Samaa TV’s Urdu-language website
The link leads to the Murree crane story on Samaa TV’s Urdu-language homepage, the archived version of which shows that the channel initially carried and shared the misleading report; it was later revised. Interestingly, the timestamp above Samaa TV Urdu’s post is 8 January 2018 but this is impossible given the video is from 2020. According to CrowdTangle, the post was, in fact, shared at 6:52 PM on 8 January 2022 and not 8 January 2018. It is not clear why the post carried the incorrect time stamp of 8 January 2018.
On YouTube, close to two dozen videos were shared following the 2022 Murree tragedy, gaining a total of 2,699 views.
Conclusion: The video in question does depict an excavator crane sliding off a snowy road into the woods below, but it is from 2020 not from 2022 and was shot in Malam Jabba, not Murree.