Lighthouse Journalism came across a picture being shared on social media platforms, where a bridge in a bad state, with mesh showing could be seen. It was being claimed along with the picture that the dilapidated bridge was from India, some posts also claimed that the bridge was built after 2014. During the investigation we found that the picture was from Bangladesh and not India.
Claim:
X user Aaqib Anwar shared the picture on his handle with a misleading claim.
Check the archive version of the post here.
Other users too are sharing the claim with the misleading claim.
Investigation:
We started the investigation by running a reverse image search on the image.
We found a similar image in an article on the website, dailyswadhinbangla.com.
The report was titled (translation): Amtali’s connection bridge is like a death trap
The report was published on 19 February, 2022. It mentioned: Iron Bridge connecting Chawra and Haldia Unions of Amtali Upazila of Barguna has become in poor condition. The bridge is broken. 15 thousand people of the two unions have to suffer every day to cross this dangerous bridge.
We found that the regions mentioned in the news report are in Bangladesh.
We also found the image of the dilapidated bridge on the website thedailystar.net.
We also found a picture of the bridge on the website mzamin.com.
The report was titled: 19 dangerous bridges in Amtali, lakhs of people in fear.
The report was published in June, 2024. Similarly another report published in July 2024, in kalerkantho.com too shared the similar picture that is being widely shared claiming to be of a bridge from India.
Conclusion: Image of dilapidated bridge from Bangladesh falsely shared as that from India. Viral claim is misleading.
