Does a video show the strewn-about bodies of women who were really killed by floods? No, that's not true: This video is staged and shows living women who are pretending to be dead. The video was first published on Instagram on July 3, 2026, predating both the July 19, 2026, Assam floods in India, and the August 26, 2026, floods in Nepal.
The claim resurfaced in a post (archived here) published by the account @_Fabianszn on X on Aug. 27, 2026. It read:
Pray for Nepal
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Image source: post by @_Fabianszn on X.)
The video has two insets. In the top left corner is a still image from real CCTV footage of the disaster from the border at Gyirong Port near the Nepal-China border. The Associated Press published the footage on YouTube on Aug. 27, 2026 (archived here). In the lower left corner is a video with seven clips. This fact check focuses on the main video showing the women; the source and date of the seven clips are not examined here.
United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) operates the humanitarian information service website ReliefWeb, where the overview on the Assam floods in India (archived here) reads:
The Assam floods began on 19 July 2026, triggered by exceptionally heavy monsoonal rainfall, which reached up to 490% above normal levels in parts of Upper Assam. Rising river levels and continuous rainfall caused floodwaters to spread rapidly across multiple districts, inundating villages, agricultural land, and critical infrastructure. The situation worsened throughout the following week as flooding expanded, and the number of affected people increased steadily. The emergency reached its peak on 27-28 July, when more than 800 villages were inundated and flood impacts were at their highest.
The overview of the flash floods in Nepal (archived here) reads:
A major flash flood struck Rasuwa district after a sudden and intense surge of water entered the Bhote Koshi River from the Tibet (China) side at approximately 9:15 AM [on 26 August 2026]. The flood rapidly impacted the Timure, Rasuwagadhi, and Syabrubesi areas, causing significant damage to settlements, markets, police infrastructure, roads, and hydropower facilities.
Both of these flooding disasters came after the video (embedded below) was published on Instagram by @simransk944 on July 3, 2026 (archived here).
This account has continued to publish similar videos that show women posed, as if dead, in and beside waterways. Other videos from @simransk944 show lighthearted scenes of games and pranks between friends. A video published on Aug. 9, 2026, shows behind the scenes of the production of one of these videos (archived here). Some of the women are relaxing, while others hold their pose as if dead. One woman who appears to be the director helps to arrange the hair of another in the water (pictured below).
(Image source: post by @simransk944 on Instagram.)
Other fact checks
This video was investigated by Indian fact-checking organization The Quint on July 30, 2026, when the video was falsely associated with the Assam floods.
