On April 16, the United Arab Emirates experienced severe thunderstorms that resulted in the heaviest rain recorded ever in the country. The downpours resulted in flooding across the area, including at Dubai International Airport.
A viral video online shows camels appearing to be swept away by floodwaters in a desert as a result of the storms. But some commenters claim the footage is not from Dubai or call the video “fake.”
THE QUESTION
Is the video of camels being swept away from the recent Dubai flooding?
THE SOURCES
THE ANSWER
No, the video of camels being swept away is not from the recent Dubai flooding. The video has been circulating online since 2018.
WHAT WE FOUND
The viral video that shows camels being swept away in a flood is real, but it is not from the recent flooding in Dubai. The video has been circulating online for a number of years.
VERIFY conducted a reverse image search using screenshots from the viral video and found another version of the video posted online as early as 2018. Similar footage was also posted online earlier this year before the Dubai floods. All of the videos show a similar scene with matching details – fast moving, brown flood waters sweeping away camels, reddish-brown mountains in the distance, and an identical tree in the middle of the flood.
Many of the older videos have captions that say the video was taken in Saudi Arabia, not Dubai. A YouTube video posted in 2018 that shows a different angle of the camels also says the images are from a flash flood in Saudi Arabia that year. The country experienced severe flooding in 2018.
VERIFY was unable to find the original source of the video to confirm it was originally taken in Saudi Arabia.
The video occasionally resurfaces when a similar natural disaster occurs. It was also falsely tied to flooding in northwestern India in 2020.
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