A 19 second video has been doing the rounds on messaging groups and social media with the title, “Now at mehdi patnam, Hyderabad flyover.” The video shows vehicles plying on a flyover as it is raining heavily. Around 4 seconds into the video, a large billboard is seen flying in the rain and winds and crashing onto the road. The billboard falls on one biker and one more bike can be seen falling down in the crash aftermath.
Though the video has gone viral, it is not from Hyderabad in India, but from Karachi in Pakistan. This was clarified by Konatham Dileep - Director, Digital Media wing of the Telangana government, who posted on Twitter saying “#FakeNewsAlert. This unfortunate incident happened in Karachi, Pakistan. Some miscreants are spreading rumors that this happened in Hyderabad. Do not forward or post any such info without verifying.
#FakeNewsAlert
— Konatham Dileep (@KonathamDileep) August 10, 2020
This unfortunate incident happened in Karachi, Pakistan. Some miscreants are spreading rumors that this happened in Hyderabad. Do not forward or post any such info without verifying. pic.twitter.com/IcVw8mtAYy
Arvind Kumar IAS, the Secretary of Urban Development also posted about the same.
#FakeNewsAlert
— Arvind Kumar (@arvindkumar_ias) August 10, 2020
This happened in Karachi
Some over- enthusiastic forwards are being sent showing it as happened in #Hyderabad
NOT TRUE
As already clarified by @KonathamDileep @KTRTRS https://t.co/h2gixMxOBQ pic.twitter.com/dxoEMgIEXC
On August 7, Pakistani newspapers had reported about this accident. The reports said that two people injured after a billboard fell near the Metropole Hotel in Karachi during heavy rainfall on Thursday. The reports have carried the same video and screenshots from it. Reports say that the Karachi commissioner's office ordered the immediate removal of billboards from the city’s streets.
Mehdipatnam is near Rajendra Nagar, a part of Hyderabad. According to the Telangana State Development Planning Society, Hyderabad did not receive any rainfall on Thursday, though there was a forecast of ‘moderate’ rainfall in the state by the Indian Meteorological Department.
The only element that is common is perhaps that in Pakistan too, the Supreme Court had asked for billboards to be removed in 2018, but seems many don’t heed to this court ruling. In Hyderabad, like in many other places in India, though there are strict rules regarding where billboards and flex boards can be put up, the rules are flouted with impunity.