Authors
A video showing a truck colliding into a vehicle on a highway and exploding into flames is being widely shared online, claiming to show a tanker explosion in Dubai. Newschecker found the video to be a compilation of four separate accidents that had occurred in Italy, Egypt, and the UAE.
The two-minute and eight-second-long video shows several cars and buildings ablaze and people rushing to escape the fire.
Trigger Warning: The video contains visuals that some viewers might find disturbing
Newschecker received a request from a user on its WhatsApp helpline number (+91 9999499044), to check the veracity of the video.
Factcheck/Verification
To check if the video really shows a tanker explosion in Dubai, Newschecker started by analyzing the video and found the logo of USA Today, an American media organization for nearly the first half of the video.
Using this as a clue, we ran a keyword search for, ‘USA today gas tanker explosion,’ and found a video titled, ‘Truck explosion in Italy kills two, injures dozens.’
The video on the USA Today website dated August 2018, matches the visuals in the viral video. The description of the video reads, ‘A tanker truck exploded on a highway in northern Italy, killing at least two people and injuring up to 70.’
At the fifty-one-second mark in the video, we can see a different shot where cars are engulfed in fire. On running a reverse image search on frames showing the burning cars, we found an article by Gulf News, a Dubai-based daily newspaper, dated July 2020.
The article titled, ‘Huge fire hits oil pipeline near Cairo,’ matches one of the keyframes from the video.
According to the report, ‘The fire was triggered by a spark after the fracture in the pipeline running through the Cairo-Ismailia desert highway resulting in a spill,’ which reportedly injured at least six people.
Further, at the one-minute and twenty-one-second mark in the video Newschecker noticed a change in the shot where we can see buildings and cars on fire.
On running a reverse image search, we found an article by La Crónica de Hoy, a Mexican-based Spanish media organization that carries images matching the keyframes from the viral video.
According to the report dated August 2020, the images show a massive fire in a market in Ajman, UAE.
The video ends with people running up and down a staircase after an explosion, on further running a reverse image search on this frame, Newschceker found a link to the Daily Mail website, a British tabloid.
The portal has carried the exact video as seen in the last few seconds of the viral video. The report dated February 2019 is titled,’ Video: Horrifying moment train ‘going full speed’ slams into the platform at Cairo rail station and EXPLODES leaving dozens dead and scores injured.’
Conclusion
Videos of four separate accidents are clubbed together falsely claiming, ‘Dubai tanker explosion.’
Result: Manipulated media
Our Sources
If you would like us to fact check a claim, give feedback or lodge a complaint, WhatsApp us at 9999499044 or email us at checkthis@newschecker.in. You can also visit the Contact Us page and fill the form.
