Floods caused by heavy rains have ravaged parts of China recently. 80,000 people were evacuated from the Sichuan area due to incessant rainfall and floods. Because of the continuous rainfall, the water levels in the country’s Three Gorges Dam have been rising steadily.
Against this backdrop, a video of a large boat overturning in floodwater is being shared widely on social media. It is being claimed that the footage shows the Three Gorges Dam of China.
Due to heavy rain the Gorges Dam in China was opened. See what happened next. @MeenaDasNarayan pic.twitter.com/YcVjtlYU0T
— Narayan Ned (@NarayanNed) August 7, 2021
Another Twitter user posted the video as scenes from China’s Three Gorges Dam. (Archive link)
The Gorges Dam in China on 2nd August 2021 due to heavy overflowing..!!#China #ChinaFloods #chinaflood #Flood #چائینہ pic.twitter.com/fCWvD0w0N7
— IjAz Ali SaGHar (@SaGHar1214) August 5, 2021
A Facebook page named ‘Tobacco World’ shared the visuals with the same claim. 
Alt News received a few requests to verify the video on its mobile app. The footage has also been circulated on WhatsApp as scenes from the recent floods in China.
Fact-check
Alt News performed a keyword search and we located the original video posted by Russian news channel RT as the 2011 tsunami in Japan. According to the caption, this video shows the aftermath of the tsunami in the Japanese city of Mayako. It is also mentioned that the waves were so high that everything that came in their way was swept away, including boats and vehicles. According to officials, more than 1,400 people were killed in the quake and hundreds went missing after the tsunami hit.
Comparing the frames from both the video’s establishes that this footage is of the 2011 tsunami in Japan.
More visuals from the 2011 tsunami in Japan can be found in these reports from The Atlantic, Nairaland Forum, and ABC News.
A video of cars, buses, and aeroplanes drifting in floodwater was previously shared as China too. Alt News investigated this clip and discovered that this was also shot during the tsunami that hit Japan in 2011.
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