Fact Check: Iran attacks Israel with nuclear strike? No, video shows Tianjin blasts in 2015

Hyderabad: As tensions between Iran and Israel escalate, a video claiming to show Iran carrying out a nuclear strike against Israel is going viral on social media.

In the video, we can see a huge explosion taking place as a smoke cloud rises. The place of impact is engulfed in flames as another explosion occurs towards the end of the video.

The video is shared on Facebook with the caption, “This looks like Nuclear Attack on Israel. Did Iran just dropped nuke at Israel. This is craziest ever. (sic)” (Archive)

A post making a similar claim can be seen here. (Archive)

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the claim is false. The video shows an explosion that occurred in China’s Tianjin on August 12, 2015.

Using keyword searches, we did not find any news reports confirming that Iran has carried out nuclear strikes on Israel.

Using reverse image search, we found the viral video was uploaded to the BBC’s YouTube channel on August 14, 2015. The title reads ‘Tianjin explosion video captures fear of eyewitnesses - BBC News’.

The description of the video stated that the footage shows two massive explosions in the Chinese city of Tianjin.

The viral video was also uploaded on YouTube by Hong Kong Free Press on August 16, 2015, with the title, ‘Tianjin Explosion: Another View.’

The description on the video confirmed that the video shows first-hand footage of the blasts in Tianjin’s Binhai New Area, on August 12, 2015.

A Guardian report was published on September 12, 2015, with the title ‘Tianjin explosion: China sets final death toll at 173, ending search for survivors.’

The report stated that blasts took place on August 12, 2015, at the Ruihai International Logistics warehouses.

The video does not show nuclear strikes carried out by Iran against Israel. The footage shows a series of blasts that occurred in China’s Tianjin city on August 12, 2015.

Therefore, NewsMeter concludes that the viral claim is false.