Claim: A social media video shows a newborn baby being rescued after a powerful earthquake hit Morocco on 8 September 2023.
Fact: The claim about the video is misleading. The video is from India, where a newly born baby was rescued by locals and shifted to a hospital in Pulandar village.
According to recent reports, a massive 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck the High Atlas highlands of Morocco on 8 September 2023, killing around 2,000 people and injuring hundreds. The epicentre was 75 kilometres west of Marrakesh, the fourth-largest city in Morocco.
Fact or Fiction?
On 9 September 2023, an X (formally Twitter) user posted a video (archived) with the caption, “Here, a newborn baby is dug out of the debris after a magnitude 6.8 earthquake devastates Morocco. Pray for this child.”
The 12-second devastating video shows a man pulling a newborn baby out of the soil. In the background, people can be heard talking in Hindi, saying the child is alive.
Soch Fact Check investigated the claim after people commented that the video was not from Morocco due to language differences. Many users commented that the video is from Kanpur, India, where a baby was found buried alive in soil.
A keyword search on Google showed different news articles by Indian media outlets. Times of India, Live Hindustan, and Aaj Tak reported the incident on 9 September 2023.
According to Aaj Tak, “Villagers found a live newborn baby buried in the ground in a field in Kanpur village, Uttar Pradesh. The villagers immediately informed the police, who admitted him to the hospital. The police have registered an FIR and are investigating the matter.”
Times of India also reported that a farmer and his wife found the baby boy buried alive after they heard him crying. They dug him out and rushed him to the hospital, after which the police were informed.
Kanpur Dehat Police also posted a video message in which the Hindi language caption that translated into English reads, “Statement from the jurisdictional officer Bhoganipur in relation to the newborn baby found in the farm under Moosanagar police station area.” In the video, the officer said that the child was found by a couple in Pulandar, Musangar. The baby is healthy and under the supervision of doctors. The police are taking action on the complaint of the village head.
Furthermore, Soch Fact Check spoke to Jyoti Dwivedi, a fact checker from IFCN-accredited Aaj Tak, who confirmed that the video is from India. She also said that their team had spoken to the police and local journalists who verified that the incident happened in a village in the Kanpur district in India.
Virality
On X (formally Twitter), the false video received 276k views, 400 reposts, and 1,670 likes. The archived versions of the posts can be seen here, here, here, and here. The video was also posted on Facebook here.
Conclusion: The video of a man rescuing a newborn baby from soil is not from the 2023 Morocco earthquake; it was from another incident in India where a baby was found buried alive in Kanpur.
Background image in cover photo: Ayoub Allaoui
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