Video shows anti-terror drill at German airport, not 'attack on Chinese citizens in New York'
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on October 25, 2022 at 11:07
- 3 min read
- By Wasi MIRZA, AFP Pakistan
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The 30-second video -- viewed more than 29,000 times -- was shared here on Twitter on October 20, 2022.
It appears to show crowds of people running to safety as masked gunmen chase and shoot them down.
"*Breaking News*. There is a mass shooting going on in America's New York City right now. The wounded are all Chinese citizens. And most of them are students," reads the tweet's Urdu-language caption.
The video circulated in October 2022 after a teenager was shot dead in a New York subway following an argument between two groups of young people, the New York Times reported.
It was shared in similar false posts on Twitter here, here, here and here. It was also viewed over 10,000 times in Chinese-language Twitter posts here, here and here.
However, the clip does not show a mass shooting.
German anti-terror drill
A reverse image search on Google followed by a keyword search found similar scenes in a video published here by German public broadcaster ARD on November 21, 2018.
"Around 1,000 police officers, customs officials and firefighters simulated a possible terrorist attack at Cologne/Bonn Airport," the German-language description reads.
"The brief training session witnessed by reporters was shockingly realistic: volleys from submachine guns, five attackers stormed the departure area in Terminal 1 of Cologne/Bonn Airport."
Below are screenshots comparing scenes in the video in the false posts (left) with the video from ARD (right), with similar features highlighted by AFP:
Similar videos had been used in reports on the drill at the time by German media General-Anzeiger, ntv, Rheinische Post and Bild.
Taiwanese fact-checking outlet MyGoPen also debunked the video here after it circulated in Chinese-language posts.
MyGoPen's report used a video shot from the same angle, also uploaded on November 21, 2018.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the video in the false posts (left) with the video from MyGoPen's report (right):
A view of the corresponding area inside the airport where the videos were shot can be seen here on Google Maps:
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