Publish Date (HKT) 2023-08-29
Video of falling incident in Russia misrepresented as ‘Chinese official committing suicide’
The claim: A video of a person falling off a building claims to show a Chinese official committing suicide at a government office building in the northeastern China’s Dalian city.
Fact-checking:
The viral video was actually filmed in Novosibirsk, Russia, and portrays a falling incident that occurred in October 2021. The appearance of the building in the viral video does not match that of the Dalian public security traffic police brigade office, the alleged suicidal location of the Chinese official. As of the issuance of this report, there is no evidence to suggest any connection between the falling incident in Russia and the so-called Chinese official suicide incident.
Our verdict: The video does not show a Chinese official committing suicide by jumping off the office building, but rather a falling incident in Russia. Therefore, we rate the claim as FALSE.
News Brief
A video shared July 25, 2023, on Twitter, claims to show a Chinese official committing suicide by jumping off a government office building in Dalian in northeastern China’s Liaoning province. The caption, written in simplified Chinese, translates as, “Dalian traffic police brigade political commissar jumps from the ninth floor, committing suicide.” As of the issuance of the report, the tweet had been shared 299 times, 21 times with quote, and had garnered 1,545 likes or reactions. Similar videos have been circulating since 2022, and the caption claims, “On June 15th, the political commissar of the Dalian public security bureau traffic police brigade jumped from the sixth floor of the brigade office building.”
A similar video was also shared in an English-language tweet. However, the tweet claims that the video shows “Ugandan woman Monic Karungi jumping to her death at Al Fahad Building in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).”
Fact-checking
A reverse image search found an article published Oct. 22, 2021 by a Russian media organization Om1.ru. Upon comparison, the architectural appearance, roads, and other details in the viral video are identical to those in the images shared in the article. It can be inferred that the scenes in the viral image have been horizontally flipped. According to the article, on Oct. 22, 2021, a teenager died by falling from a window of a building at 14 Ulitsa Trolleynaya Street (улице Троллейной, 14) in Russia.
On the same day, a Russian media organization Sibkray.ru reported the incident using the same photo. According to the news article published by Sibkray.ru, the doctor of the ambulance station stated that a woman, appearing to be around 35 years old, fell from a building and died at the scene.
A search on Google Maps found that the building is located in Novosibirsk, the capital city of the Novosibirsk Oblast in Russia. A comparison between the Google Street View of the building in Novosibirsk and the building in the viral video shows that they are almost identical. Therefore, it can be inferred that the viral video was filmed in Novosibirsk, Russia.
According to the images shared in the Chinese mapping service provider Amap (known as Gaode in Chinese) and an article published by the Chinese media organization Phoenix News, the appearance of the office building of Dalian public security bureau traffic police brigade is different from the architecture in the viral video.
HKBU Fact Check is currently unable to independently verify the age and identity of the deceased in the viral video. However, it can be confirmed that the incident in the viral video took place in Novosibirsk, Russia in October 2021. Further searches on reliable sources produced no information that links the incident in Russia to the purported suicide of the Chinese official in Dalian. Hence, there is currently no evidence to support the claim.
Conclusion
The video does not show a Chinese official committing suicide by jumping off the office building, but rather a falling incident in Russia.
References
- Twitter, tweet, July 25, 2023.
- Twitter, tweet, July 1, 2022.
- Twitter, tweet, May 3, 2022.
- Om1.ru, “На парковке новосибирской многоэтажки обнаружили труп подростка,” Oct. 22, 2021.
- Sibkray.ru, “ Женщина разбилась насмерть при падении из восьмиэтажки в Новосибирске ,”Oct. 22, 2021.
- Google Maps.