China fire drill footage misrepresented as Nepal tremor

Misrepresented clips continue to surface on social media following the devastating earthquake in China’s remote Tibet region in January 2025, which was also felt in India and Nepal. Burmese Facebook users have repeatedly linked footage of students rushing out of a building to the tremor, but the video was filmed in China’s Hunan province and shows a 2024 fire drill.

“#Earthquake update — 7/1/2025 The moment a magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck near Nepal… The tremor was first recorded by NEMRC/DG today at 6:50 in the morning near Chinese border between Sankhuwasabha and Taplejung,” says a Burmese-language Facebook post shared January 7, referring to areas in Nepal near the Chinese border.

A 30-second video in the post shows a group of children in uniforms running out of a building that appears to emit smoke while an alarm blares. It has been viewed more than 73,000 times. 

The post surfaced after an earthquake in China’s remote Tibet region killed at least 126 people and damaged thousands of buildings the morning of January 7 (archived here).

The China Earthquake Networks Center (CENC) measured the quake’s magnitude as 6.8, while the US Geological Survey reported it as 7.1. The tremors were also felt in neighboring India and Nepal, though no casualties were reported.

Similar posts have circulated elsewhere on Facebook, but the video they share is unrelated to the recent earthquake.

School fire drill

Reverse image searches on Google, followed by keyword searches, surfaced a longer version of the video posted November 22, 2024 on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok.

The Chinese-language caption translates to English as: “This fire escape and evacuation drill was a complete success. More than 1,400 teachers and students in the school were evacuated to the designated safe place within 2 minutes and 30 seconds.” 

The Douyin user posted a video introducing himself as a teacher from Taiyuan Middle School in Hengyang county in China’s Hunan province. He also shared multiple videos of school activities on his feed (archived here, here and here).

Keyword searches using the school’s name in Chinese found a report published November 25, 2024 by the Hengyang county government about a fire drill exercise (archived here). 

“Taiyuan Township Furong School: Act quickly to prevent disasters before they start,” the title reads.

Furong School and the Hengyang County Fire and Rescue Brigade jointly held the drill on November 22, 2024, according to the report. It includes two photos of students — wearing the same uniforms as those seen in the Douyin video — moving away from a building and learning to use fire extinguishers.

AFP confirmed the video shows Taiyuan Middle School by comparing it with a geotagged photo on Baidu Maps (archived here).

AFP has debunked other misinformation related to the January 2025 earthquake here, here and here.