Video Claims to Show Sri Lanka’s Cyclone Ditwah Flood Damage is Misleading

A viral video circulating on Facebook claims to show heartbreaking scenes from Sri Lanka, with captions stating: “Heartbreaking news from Sri Lanka… 47 lives lost as Cyclone Ditwah strikes.” The clip has been widely shared during ongoing extreme weather updates in the region. However, our investigation found that the compilation does not show Sri Lanka. It mixes unrelated footage from Japan and Thailand.

Social Media Posts

The video was shared on Facebook with the caption alleging that all scenes depict destruction caused by Cyclone Ditwah in Sri Lanka.

Source | Archive

Fact Check

Context about Cyclone Ditwah

By the time this fact check were conducted, the official death toll in Cyclone Ditwah’s impact on Sri Lanka had risen well beyond the 47 lives claimed in the viral post. According to the latest report by Ada Derana, issued on 3 December 2025 via the Disaster Management Centre (DMC) of Sri Lanka, the death toll from Cyclone Ditwah has risen to 479 people, with approximately 350 individuals still reported missing. This figure indicates a significant escalation compared to earlier estimates and underscores that the scale of the disaster is far larger than initially reported.

Visual Analysis

Footage at 00:01 – Japan Landslide, July 2021

The opening scene showing a destructive landslide is not from Sri Lanka. It matches news coverage of a massive landslide in Atami, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan, reported in July 2021.

Source: NBC Today Show archive

Footage at 00:10– Hat Yai Flood, Southern Thailand (Nov 2025)

The second scene shows severe flooding in Hat Yai, southern Thailand. It appears in local Thai news coverage of floods in November 2025.

Footage at 00:15 – Hat Yai Flood, Thailand (Nov 2025)

Another clip in the compilation comes from the same Hat Yai flooding event. (Source)

Footage at 00:17 – Hat Yai, Thailand (School Name Visible)

Source

A rooftop sign reading “หาดใหญ่วิทยาลัยสมบูรณ์กุลกันยา” (Hatyai Wittayalai Somboonkulkanya School) clearly identifies the location as Hat Yai, Thailand, not Sri Lanka.

Footage at 00:19 – Hat Yai Flood, Southern Thailand (Nov 2025)

This closing scene is also from the same Thai flood event.

Across all segments, none of the footage corresponds to Sri Lanka or to Cyclone Ditwah. The video is a miscaptioned compilation assembled from unrelated disasters.

Conclusion

The viral video claiming to show Cyclone Ditwah’s impact on Sri Lanka is misleading. Our investigation confirms that the footage is a misleading compilation from unrelated disasters in Japan (2021) and Thailand (2025), with no scenes actually filmed in Sri Lanka.