Nearly 4,500 people remain missing days after a high-altitude glacial collapse on August 26 unleashed a torrent of icy debris that swept through settlements in Nepal. But footage shared online depicting an avalanche cascading into a mountain lake does not show the onset of the disaster. AFP found the video was filmed weeks earlier in Peru and shows an avalanche at Humantay Lagoon.
“The moment the devastating flood came rushing into Nepal. This footage shows the terrifying force of the flash flood that struck Nepal on 26 August 2026,” reads an Instagram post shared on August 29, 2026.
Text superimposed on the clip claims it shows the “first video of the flood coming in Nepal”.
The video, which garnered more than 333,000 views, shows an avalanche hurtling down a mountainside towards a lake as two people can be seen moving away in the foreground.
Screenshot of the false Instagram post taken on September 1, with a red X added by AFP
The video, which was filmed weeks before the disaster, also circulated on Facebook and X with similar claims linking it to the floods in Nepal.
Devastating floods in the China-Nepal border killed at least 1,114 people in Nepal, while 3,916 remained missing, the disaster authority said on September 2 (archived links here and here).
Rescue teams are meanwhile digging, drilling and blasting through debris in an effort to reach around 100 hydropower workers believed trapped in multiple tunnels.
The US Geological Survey (USGS) says the disaster that struck the China-Nepal border on August 26 was triggered by a glacial collapse.
However this clip is unrelated to the disaster in Nepal.
Footage from Peru
A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the false post found an identical Instagram video published on July 27 ( archived link).
The Instagram video was captioned with the hashtags “avalanche, mountain, perù, humantay and lagoon”.
Screenshot comparison of the false post clip (L) and the July Instagram video
The same user also posted another photo of himself sitting beside the same lake on July 28 ( archived link).
A subsequent keyword search on Google found local media reports about an avalanche in Peru on July 27.
Local media reports said the Instagram video was filmed at Humantay Lagoon on July 27, 2026, when a large mass of ice broke off the snow-covered mountains above the glacial lake in Peru’s Cusco region (archived links here, here).
No injuries or damage were reported, but local authorities had to reassess conditions at the popular tourist site following the avalanche.
The footage corresponds to geo-tagged images of the Humantay Lagoon uploaded on Google Maps ( archived link).
Screenshot comparison of the false post (L) and a Google Maps photo
AFP has debunked other false claims swirling around the disaster in Nepal and Tibet.
