Fact Check: Viral video of church on fire is from France, not Manipur
NewsMeter found that the video is from France.
By Md Mahfooz Alam Published on 29 July 2023 12:54 PM GMT
Screengrab from the Facebook post.
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.
(Courtesy: Abhinay Gupta/Facebook)
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.
(Courtesy: Ladepeche.fr)
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.
(Courtesy: BBN Network)
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.
