Notice: the text contains a description of a disturbing scene.
What are they sharing: audio in which a man says he is rescuing rain victims with a boat in Canoas, Rio Grande do Sul. He reports that he removed three children from a flooded area and that one of them asked to pick up a “doll” in the middle of the water. The man claims he realized it was a baby’s body floating.
Estadão Verifica investigated and concluded that: There is no evidence that this report is true. The Public Security Secretariat of Rio Grande do Sul (SSP-RS) stated that the published content is false and reported that it had not recorded any occurrence of a child’s body floating. The Rio Grande do Sul Fire Department (CBMRS) also denied the content and reported that it had not found bodies floating in the city. The Legal Medical Department (DML) of Rio Grande do Sul confirmed that it had no record of the death of a newborn until this Tuesday, 7th.
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Know more: The fake audio had great repercussions on social media. On TikTok, there were 27.9 thousand shares. On Facebook, 486 thousand views. On WhatsApp, readers asked to check the number Estadão Verifica(11) 97683-7490.
O Estadão Verifica denied posts that claimed there were “hundreds of bodies” floating in Canoas. The city’s mayor, Jairo Jorge (PSD), reported at a press conference on May 6 that two deaths related to the climate crisis had been confirmed. In an interview with GaúchaZH, Jorge said that rumors about hundreds of bodies floating are false and added that rescue teams did not see this situation.
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“We talked to the people on the boats, and this information was not seen. None of the people who are carrying out the rescue, who we contacted, confirm this information,” she said.
The latest report from the Civil Defense of RS, released this Tuesday, records 90 deaths and 132 missing in the climate tragedy that hit the State. The number of cities and people affected has increased since Monday, 6. Before. there were 345 municipalities and 850 thousand people affected; now, there are 397 cities and 1,367,506 residents.
The Public Security Secretariat of Rio Grande do Sul warned that there is a large number of misleading content circulating on social media. This makes search and rescue work difficult for agents, who have to deal with an even more turbulent and panicky scenario, according to the Secretariat.
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The SSP recommended monitoring the official communication channels of the Government of Rio Grande do Sul and the municipalities that were affected.
See below checks published by Estadão Verifica about the tragedy in Rio Grande do Sul.
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