Authors
Kushel HM is a mechanical engineer-turned-journalist, who loves all things football, tennis and films. He was with the news desk at the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, before joining Newschecker.
Claim
Paris bombed by airstrikes amid France unrest, sparked by police killing of a teenager.
Fact
A CGI video released by Ukraine as a message to NATO last year. The video was created by a French film-maker.
Several social media users are circulating a video, where you can see a woman posing near Paris’s iconic Eiffel Tower, before a purported air attack bombing the surrounding area. There is smoke billowing from the areas near the Eiffel Tower, even as planes fly past amid sirens being sounded. “Paris is dying,” read the claims, following the wave of protests that have rocked France and into its fifth day, sparked by the police killing of a 17-year-old of Algerian descent. The French Interior Ministry on Sunday announced a provisional tally of 719 arrests overnight, including 20 in Paris.
Also Read: 2016 Video From Filming Of Fast And Furious 8 Falsely Linked To France Violence
Fact Check
Newschecker first ran a keyword search for “Paris air strikes”, which did not throw up any credible news reports. We learnt that the violence and looting has subsided in Nanterre and Paris, amid an uneasy claim and heavy police presence early on Monday, raising our doubts on the viral video that resembled a war scene.
A reverse image search of keyframes of the video led us to this Newsweek report, dated March 12, 2022, titled “Ukraine Releases Edited Video of Mock Attack on Paris, in Message to NATO”.
“Ukraine’s defence ministry has released an edited video mocking up a military attack on Paris, as it again urged Western powers to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine. The video was posted to Twitter on Saturday, using CGI to depict the French capital city being attacked from the air with explosions near the Eiffel Tower,” read the report.
“The 45-second video begins with a woman posing in front of the Eiffel Tower and quickly moves on to depicting an attack on the capital, highlighting other landmarks including the Sacré-Coeur basilica. One section of the video appears to be filmed from inside an apartment as those inside watch the attack through a window as air raid sirens blare and a baby cries,” read the report. Similar reports on the mock video can be seen here and here, confirming that a shorter version of the clip was falsely linked to the ongoing France unrest.
“The graphic footage, which looks real, is being disseminated on social media by the Ukrainian government and local news outlets to send the message that what’s happening in their home country could come to pass in other democracies, and to urge the closing of airspace over Ukraine,” read a Forbes report.
We later learnt that two French citizens, Jean-Charles Lévy, a video producer, and director, Olias Barco, created it to spread awareness on what could happen if Russia continues its invasions. According to a report in VerifyThis, even though the video has been widely shared by Ukrainian government social media accounts, it was not created by the Ukrainian government, French film producer Jean-Charles Lévy said. “Lévy and Barco have been working in Ukraine for about four years and instead of posting the video to their social media accounts, they sent it directly to people they knew in Ukraine with the hope it would then be spread online,” read the report.
Also Read: Wild Animals On Paris Streets? Old Videos Falsely Linked To Ongoing Riots In France
Conclusion
A CGI video released by Ukraine last year, which was created by a French film-maker, as an awareness message during the Russia war has been falsely claimed to be real footage of airstrikes in Paris.
Result: False
Sources
Newsweek report, March 12, 2022
Tweet, Department of Ukraine, March 12, 2022
Instagram post, Forecast Pictures
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Authors
Kushel HM is a mechanical engineer-turned-journalist, who loves all things football, tennis and films. He was with the news desk at the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, before joining Newschecker.
