Video of falling incident in Russia misrepresented as ‘Chinese official committing suicide’

 

 Screenshots of the viral video.

 

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).”

 

Screenshot of a similar video circulating on Twitter.

 

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.

 

Comparison of the screenshots from the viral video (top) and the images shared in the Sibkray.ru article (bottom).

 

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.

 

The facade of the building shown in Google Street View corresponds with the appearance of the building in the viral video.

 

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.

Images of the Dalian traffic police building shared in Amap and a news article published by Phoenix News.

 

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.