After Mount Anak Krakatau in Indonesia erupted in early September 2026, stranding hundreds of thousands of passengers in the country’s airports, social media posts resurfaced an unrelated video from Guatemala falsely claiming it depicted the eruption. The video was filmed in June and shows the eruption of Volc\u00e1n de Fuego overlooking Guatemala’s southwestern city of Antigua.<\/p>\n
“Breaking news: Indonesian volcano erupts. Eleven mountaineers were killed,” reads a simplified Chinese X post<\/a> shared on September 9, 2026.<\/p>\n The clip shows a man and his companions standing on a mountain as it emits black smoke and molten hot lava rocks.<\/p>\n Screenshot of the false post, taken on September 10, 2026, with a red X added by AFP<\/p>\n <\/span><\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Similar posts were shared on Douyin<\/a>, Bilibili<\/a>, Sina<\/a> and Weibo<\/a> in Chinese as well as in English <\/a>and Arabic<\/a> after Mount Anak Krakatau, located in the strait separating the islands of Java and Sumatra, erupted<\/a> multiple times in September ( archived link<\/a>).<\/p>\n Indonesia’s main airport and several other air travel hubs halted nearly 3,000 flights due to the eruption, stranding more than 340,000 passengers, before gradually resuming<\/a> on September 8 after authorities cleared volcanic ash from critical infrastructure ( archived here<\/a>).<\/p>\n Eight people<\/a>, including five journalists, went missing after they set out on a speedboat to cover the eruption ( archived link<\/a>).<\/p>\n However, the video was not filmed in Indonesia.<\/p>\n A reverse image search<\/a> on Google using screenshots found the same footage<\/a> published on TikTok on June 17 ( archived link<\/a>).<\/p>\n “As soon as I’ve survived the volcano, I’ll send it to you, mom #Acatenango #Volc\u00e1nDeFuego #Guatemala,” its Spanish-language caption reads.<\/p>\n![\"<span>Screenshot](\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/lo\/mysterio\/api\/635ca3fa6fb43f338075507c2f563197d6c1891c8f4e76f5b2d3f8a84e88f978\/lightyear_networkapi\/resizefill_w960%3Bquality_80%3Bformat_webp\/https%3A%2F%2Fmedia.zenfs.com%2Fen%2Fafp_factcheck_us_713%2F8e18c9a4aa1b079420c335b192e075b8.jpg\"\/)