On November 23, 2021, a ferry transporting approximately 20 people capsized in the Kinniya Lagoon in Sri Lanka. In this context, an image of a capsized boat is going viral on social media linking it to the Kinniya tragedy.
The image is being shared with a caption in Sinhalese that reads, “අපේ රටට ඇත්තටම අවශ්ය නෙළුම් කුළුණුද,මැණික් කුලුනුද, මෙවන් අකල් මරණයන් උපදින කිසිම ආත්මයක නොවේවා නිවන් සුව ලැබේවා ත්රිකුනාමලය කින්නියා පෙරපාසල් ළමුන් රැගත් පාලම් පාරුව අනතුරට ලක්වී මියගිය සියලු දෙනාටම නිවන් සුව අත්වේවා”
(English translation (via Google): The Lotus Towers and the Gem Towers that our country really needs, let there be no soul born of such premature deaths. Rest in peace Trincomalee Kinniya Pre-School Children’s Bridge Crash.“)
The link to the post can be seen here.
FACT CHECK
NewsMobile did a fact-check and found the claim to be misleading.
On doing a Google Reverse Image Search, we found that the same image was published on Lankadeepa.Lk website on June 13, 2016. The article associated with the image read that a ferry carrying a lorry loaded with 30 bags of cement, a three-wheeler, a motorbike and a bicycle had fallen in the Benthara river. At that time, six people including the operator of the ferry were on board and four people who fell into the river were rescued.
Another website, Dinamina.lk had also reported about the incident. The report said that after the Ittepana Horawala ferry connecting Kalutara and Galle districts had capsized in June 2016, in Benthara River, people were affected and hence Rs. 7.5 million was approved for a ferry.
Hence, it is evident that an old image of a ferry accident in the Benthara River has gone viral with misleading claim linking it to the recent ferry accident in Kinniya Lagoon.
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