An previous video of a ferry capsizing after being battered by robust winds and waves has been recirculated by social media customers who falsely declare it exhibits a lethal vacationer boat sinking throughout a storm in Vietnam’s Ha Lengthy Bay on July 19, 2025. The clip was revealed earlier in Vietnamese media studies concerning the affect of Hurricane Yagi in September 2024, one of many area’s strongest storms that 12 months.
“Vietnam: A vacationer boat sank whereas touring in Ha Lengthy Bay after going through robust sudden winds from storm Wipha, inflicting 34 fatalities,” reads the Thai-language caption on an X publish dated July 19, 2025.
The caption continues: “Authorities are urgently looking for dozens of lacking people.”
The publish features a video of a ship being lashed by wind and rain earlier than slowly tilting to the proper and capsizing.
At the least 35 individuals had been killed when the vacationer boat capsized throughout a storm on July 19 in what some have referred to as Ha Lengthy Bay’s worst catastrophe (archived hyperlink).
Screenshot of the false X publish, with a pink X added by AFP
Nevertheless, native media quoted the director of the nation’s Nationwide Heart for Hydrometeorological Forecasting saying the thunderstorms in northern Vietnam weren’t brought on by the affect of Tropical Storm Wipha within the South China Sea.
The identical video of the boat sinking was linked to the July catastrophe elsewhere on X and Fb, in addition to in English and Burmese-language posts.
However a reverse picture search on Google discovered the video was revealed on-line months earlier in studies a few completely different storm.
The footage was revealed on the verified Fb web page of Vietnamese media outlet VTC Information on September 7, 2024 with the caption “Vacationer boat capsizing in Ha Lengthy Bay” (archived hyperlink).
Screenshot comparability between the false X publish (L) and the video posted on Fb by VTC Information
Different Vietnamese media shops revealed the clip in studies from September 7 and eight, 2024 about storm quantity three — the native identify for Hurricane Yagi (archived hyperlinks right here and right here).
The tremendous hurricane killed no less than 197 individuals in Vietnam as its related heavy rains introduced flooding and brought about landslides. 1000’s extra needed to be evacuated because the storm disrupted export traces throughout the Pink River delta (archived hyperlink).
Shipwreck Log, a weblog that paperwork shipwrecks and maritime accidents, reported that a number of boats had been broken or sunk as Hurricane Yagi made a landfall in Vietnam and included the identical footage of the black and white ship sinking (archived hyperlink).
The vacationer ferry that capsized in July 2025 may be seen in AFP images that present a blue and white vessel with completely different railings.
Screenshot comparability between the video within the false posts (L) and the AFP photograph
