Fact Check: Image showing lovers under rubble goes viral with a false claim
Thousands of people were killed and several others injured after a severe earthquake struck southeast Turkey, near the Syrian border on February 11, 2023.
Thousands of people were killed and several others injured after a severe earthquake struck southeast Turkey, near the Syrian border on February 11, 2023. The death toll crossed 35,000 in Turkey and 5,800 in Syria. Rescuers are still at work and are finding survivors under the rubble even days after the disaster.
After this calamity, several images and videos went viral relating to this disaster. One such image is going viral on social media with the claim that it shows two lovers buried under the rubble of the earthquake and dead. As the disaster occurred just a few days before February 14 – which is celebrated as Valentine’s day, people started sharing the image with the narrative that it represents eternal love.
The claim is viral in both Bengali and English.
The claim in Bengali says” ভালোবাসা এমনিই!' তুর্কির
Fact check:
The claim that the image shows two lovers dead under the earthquake rubble in Turkey is false. The image is from a TV series named Game of Thrones.
When we performed Google reverse image search of the image, we found that the image was shared on various websites, including amazon.com. On amazon.com, the image was shared as a part of illustrations of a book named The photography of Game of Thrones, the official photo book of Season 1 to Season 8.
According to an entertainment article in huffpost.com about the Game of Thrones series, the image represents an emotional moment where the character in the series Tyrion Lannister witnesses his siblings dead under the rubble of King’s landing.
The whole story of the image can be found in this link.
The image has been published on several other websites relating it to the TV series Game of Thrones.
https://halcyonrealms.com/
The claim was also debunked by PolitiFact.
Therefore, the image is from the TV series ‘Game of Thrones' and not from the recent earthquake in Turkey. The claim is false.