Fact-check: Footage of helicopter crash is not Kobe Bryant's

Hours after the death of basketball star Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna and seven other people in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California, was confirmed, footage of what was purportedly the chopper going down went viral.

The video, published on YouTube and entitled 'Kobe Bryant Helicopter crash LIVE footage', has raked in more than 340,000 views.

However, respected fact-checking site Snopes has debunked the footage, reporting that it was of a crash in the UAE in December 2018. Snopes reports that four people were killed in that incident. The footage was published on The National, an English-language news service in the Middle East.

Meanwhile, tributes for the nine people killed in Sunday's crash continue to pour in, with fans of Bryant mourning the basketball world's loss.