Fact Check: Visuals from Crimea bridge blast in 2022 viral as Baltimore bridge’s tragedy

Hyderabad: In the early hours of March 26, a cargo ship lost control due to an alleged power cut and rammed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore. The 2.6 km long bridge sank into the river in just a matter of seconds.

In this backdrop, a video showing an explosion on a bridge is being widely shared on social media claiming to show visuals of the ship’s collision with the bridge.

“Video from The Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland as the ship collides…#BridgeCollapse #BaltimoreBridgeCollapse #baltimorebridge #realonesknow,” tweeted an X user with the video.

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Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the claim is false as the video is old and unrelated. The viral visuals show the Crimea Bridge blast in 2022.

On performing a reverse image search of the video’s keyframes, we found the same video published on the YouTube channel of The Guardian, titled ‘Kerch bridge explosion: CCTV appears to show Crimea bridge blast’, dated October 8, 2022.

The same could be seen in this YouTube video, titled ‘Blast Disables Traffic Over Bridge From Russia To Crimea’ also from October 8, 2022.

We also found a New York Post media report carrying the same visuals ‘Massive fireball that destroyed part of Russia-Crimea bridge seen in wild video’ dated October 8, 2022. According to the report, ‘A monstrous fireball bloomed over all four of the bridge’s vehicle lanes at 6:07 a.m. as a passenger car and a freight truck drove side by side up the incline to its towering arch. The flames appeared to reach across the water, enveloping the twin railroad bridge about 100 feet away.’

We also found the same reports uploaded on CNN and Al Jazeera.

Lastly, check out the real footage of the Francis Scott Key Bridge fall on the BBC News YouTube channel.