Did China experience ‘rain of worms’? What is the truth behind the viral video?
Claim
Rain of worms’ in China’s capital city of Beijing baffles people- WATCH.
#TNShorts #Beijing #China #Worms
Rating
Explanation
A video purportedly showing worms on cars and road in China is shared by social media users, verified Twitter accounts and mainstream media outlets with a claim that the city of Beijing has experienced a rain of worms. This video has gained likes and retweets in thousands and most of the viral posts seem to have been retweeted the post by ‘Inside Paper’. Some of the posts with such a claim can be seen here, here, here and here.
https://twitter.com/theinsiderpaper/status/1634283529054965814?s=12&t=kIszbQH_arRSG8kPbuGeZw
Radharamn Das, Vice President and Spokesperson of ISCKON as mentioned in his Twitter bio, also has shared the video mentioning that “China declares emergency & tells citizens to find shelter after worms started falling from the sky with heavy rains. Srimad Bhagavatam speaks about these natural calamities when a society is Godless, mindless. This is how nature responds, when you disobey the Laws of nature.”
China declares emergency & tells citizens to find shelter after worms started falling from sky with heavy rains. Srimad Bhagavatam speaks about these natural calamities when a society is Godless, mindless. This is how nature responds, when you disobey the Laws of nature. pic.twitter.com/MRYbNLip5d
— Radharamn Das राधारमण दास (@RadharamnDas) March 11, 2023
What is the truth?
We found multiple comments under the viral posts stating that they are not worms seen in the video but flowers. We also noticed a reply tweet by Shen Shiwei, a Journalist from China quoted the viral post as ‘fake news’ mentioning that he is in Beijing and the city has not got rainfall recently.
I'm in Beijing and this video is fake. Beijing hasn't got rainfall these days.
— Shen Shiwei 沈诗伟 (@shen_shiwei) March 10, 2023
When searching for the number plates mentioned in the videos to check if it belongs to Beijing, we found from the ebay webpage that the cars do not belong to Beijing but are from Shenyang, Liaoning Province of China.
Another tweet is found in the comment section of a viral post. The tweet by an account with the user name ‘Vxujianing’ is found with a few photos of the flower spikes from the trees mentioning that “The things that fall from poplar trees in spring are not caterpillars, but inflorescences of poplar trees. When poplar flower spikes start to fall, it means that they are about to bloom”. The tweet also mentioned the post as ‘fake news’.
https://twitter.com/vxujianing/status/1634353069604605953?s=46&t=kIszbQH_arRSG8kPbuGeZw
When searching for poplar buds, we found multiple images on the ‘Dreamstime’ website. These pictures show the buds on trees and fallen buds on roads and cars.
When searching further, we found a tweet by an account named ‘JournoTurk’ on 11, March 2023. This post carries a video appearing to be taken from the same location where the viral video was taken, but from the other side of the cars.
Fake News Of The Week
Thousands of newspapers,
TV channels and news sites all over the world shared that fake news:
China Pummeled By Rain Of Worms
NO it was not rain of worms ❌❌
In fact those things on the cars were leaves as U can see from the video below.@nypost #fakenews pic.twitter.com/iUTBC3ep5w— JournoTurk (@journoturk) March 11, 2023
The colours of the cars, the order in which they are parked based on their colours and a number plate seem to be marching in both videos. This video tweeted by JournoTurk mentions that they are not worms seen on the cars but leaves. The video also shows a tree at the end to clarify the same.
The phenomenon of ‘rain of animals’ is when the creatures like fish or frogs from a water body are picked up along with water during a tornado and are rained after traveling hundreds of kilometers. Though many countries have experienced it, this particular video from China is not a ‘rain of worms’.
Conclusion
It is found from our search that China did not experience a rain of worms but multiple media outlets reported falsely that it happened. In reality, those are not worms seen on the cars and road but are dried poplar buds that have fallen on the cars and road from the nearby tree. It is also found that the video is not from Beijing as claimed but from Shenyang in China.
