A viral image allegedly showing a Malayasian amusement park amidst COVID-19 lockdown is false.
An image circulated on social media allegedly states that it shows an amusement park named Sunway Lagoon, Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia overgrown with shrubs as a result of the COVID-19 lockdown that was put in action in the country back in March 18, 2020. The image is as follows:
escalator sunway lagoon pic.twitter.com/HSDGgVSVCv
— sheikh arif (@shkharf_) May 2, 2020
#AWATNINews [VIRAL] ‘Escalator Sunway Lagoon’ Gambar tangga bergerak dipenuhi dedaunan dan belukar selepas terbiar sepi selama hampir dua bulan, pentadbir tampil perjelas kekusutan: Taman tema air masih selamat dan tiada setan. pic.twitter.com/wHzD6ohaZd
— AWATNI Buzz (@AWATNINews) May 4, 2020
Truth
A simple Google Reverse Image search led to an article that was published on German magazine named ‘Woman’ under the title, “When nature takes over again: 19 unique photos of abandoned places.” A screenshot of the article is as follows and the entire article can be found here:
The viral image was found in this article and attributed to an Instagram user with the username : espinas3
A search of the individuals Instagram page revealed that the user is a urban photographer based out of Japan. The viral image was posted on her profile on May 8, 2019. The post is as follows:
The caption of the post reads – “Abandoned Amusement park”
A comparison of the above image with the viral image is as follows:
A further search of keywords directed to a tweet by Benjamin Young Savage (@benjancewicz) which confirms the location of the theme park to be in Nagasaki, Japan.
Overgrown escalator at an abandoned amusement park in Nagasaki, Japan. [1080 × 720]. pic.twitter.com/9P56R5sA1r
— Benjamin Young Savage (ᐱᓐᒋᐱᓐ) (@benjancewicz) October 13, 2019
Another article that came up during the search also has photographs of the above escalator. This article was published on 15th May 2010 and the image is as follows:
The article states that the image was taken from a Dutch-themed amusement park in Nagasaki, Japan by the name of ‘Holland Village’. A comparison of both the viral image with the original is as follows:
Hence, from the above images, it can be concluded that the image in question is from a Dutch-themed amusement park in Nagasaki, Japan with images in circulation from 2010 and is therefore not from Malaysia nor is it a result of the recent COVID-19 lockdown in the country,
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