Friday, December 5, 2025

Fact Check

2015 Video Of Tianjin Chemical Blasts Falsely Shared As Iran’s Nuclear Attack On Israel

Written By Kushel Madhusoodan, Edited By Pankaj Menon
Jun 17, 2025
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Claim

Iran launches a nuclear attack against Israel.

The archived version of the post can be seen here, which has clocked 1.7 million views so far.

Fact

Newschecker ran a reverse image search of keyframes, which led us to a longer version of the viral video on Youtube by BBC News, dated August 14, 2015 and headlined, “Tianjin explosion video captures fear of eyewitnesses.” The viral excerpt can be seen from the 00:17 mark.

“Footage of two massive explosions in the Chinese city of Tianjin, taken by a stunned eyewitness, captured the fear and terror of those who saw what happened. Dozens of people died and hundreds were injured when a warehouse owned by a company specialising in handling hazardous goods caught fire and exploded. City officials say they still did not know what materials were at the warehouse at the time of the fire, or what caused the blasts. Eyewitness Dan van Duren filmed the moment of the explosions, before he and others fled to avoid the danger,” read the description, further confirming that the viral video is not related to the Israel-Iran conflict.

Similar Guardian and People’s Daily, China reports from August 2015, sharing videos, state that the explosions took place where toxic chemicals and gas were stored, and killed at least 173 people, including firefighters.

Also Read: Israel-Iran Conflict: Old Netanyahu Clip ‘Warning’ Islamabad Spurs AI Trump Video ‘Supporting’ Pakistan To Go Viral

Sources
BBC News report, August 14, 2015
Guardian report, August 15, 2015

RESULT
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