The piles came above water after a powerful shock with a magnitude of 7.1 on the Richter scale hit South Japan on August 8, in which at least 15 people were injured (archived link).
A government spokesperson said No disruptions to infrastructure, including electricity, water and telecommunications, were recorded (archived link).
But the Japan Meteorological Agency said the country… clamp for a possible future ‘megaquake’ that could claim hundreds of thousands of lives, while stressing that the warning did not indicate that a huge quake was imminent.
The same photo was also shared on Nabalu News’ websiteare Instagram account and social media platform X.
Other news sites in Indonesia and India also used the same photo here, here And here while reporting on the recent disaster.
But the photo was taken just after an earthquake in Japan in January.
Previous earthquake in Japan
A reverse image search on Google led to a photo in the archives of the Associated Press (AP) news agency (archived link).
“Bystanders look at the damage near the town of Noto on the Noto Peninsula on the Sea of Japan, northwest of Tokyo, Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2024, after Monday’s deadly earthquake,” the caption reads.
Below is a screenshot of the photo used in the misleading messages (left) and the AP photo of the January 2024 shock (right):
British broadcaster Sky News also published a photo of the same road in January 2024 (archived link).
AFP has previously verified reports that falsely claimed to show images of the recent earthquake in Japan here.
