Fact Check: Viral video of church on fire is from France, not Manipur

Hyderabad: A video showing a church on fire is doing rounds on social media, with users claiming that BJP supporters set ablaze a 300-year-old church in Manipur.

A Twitter user shared the video with the caption, “Sugnu imphal Violence arson is not stopping Pro-BJP extremists destroyed the more than 300-year-old St. Joseph's Church lit Manipur is burning since 73 days and Prime Minister Modi is roaming abroad, I have never seen such a shameless and shameless P.M #ManipurViolence. (sic)”

Multiple Twitter and Facebook users also shared the video claiming the same.

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the video is from France.

On performing a reverse image search of the video’s keyframe, we came across a report published on July 7 by Ladepeche.fr, which carried the image of the same building on fire. It said a half-timbered church of Notre Dame was destroyed by the flames in Drosnay. It also mentioned that the origin of the fire remains unknown.

Another report by BBN Network from July 8, which also carried an image showing the same visual, said the historic half-timbered church in Drosnay, in the Marne region of France, was destroyed by a fire on July 7. The incident has left the villagers in shock and dismay as they mourn the loss of a cherished symbol of their community.

Another media outlet, dayFREuro, reported the incident in a report titled, “A historic half-timbered church destroyed by fire in the Marne, ‘the symbol of the village that is disappearing.’”

Hence, we conclude that the video showing a church on fire is from France, not Manipur. The claim is false.