Video shows cars burning in storage facility in Australia, not vehicles torched by French protesters
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on July 20, 2023 at 05:39
- 3 min read
- By Chayanit ITTHIPONGMAETEE, AFP Thailand
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"French protesters set fire to dozens of cars in a parking lot," reads the Thai-language caption of a video shared on TikTok here on July 3, 2023.
The video, viewed almost 2,000 times, shows stacks of cars being consumed by flames while small explosions can be heard throughout.
The same footage was also shared with similar claims elsewhere on Twitter in Thai here, in English here and here, in Spanish here and in Chinese here.
It was also used in Russian and Turkish articles.
It circulated after the French government had battled days of violent clashes that erupted following the fatal police shooting of a 17-year-old during a traffic stop in Paris on June 27.
The shooting of Nahel M., a teen of Algerian origin, rekindled long-standing accusations of systemic racism among security forces.
The outpouring of anger has also seen widespread destruction of property, with France's interior ministry saying more than 1,100 buildings were set on fire or damaged and nearly 6,000 vehicles were torched.
The video being shared online, however, does not show cars that have been set on fire by protesters.
Australian storage yard blaze
Reverse image searches on Google using keyframes from the video led to reports using similar footage about a fire that broke out in a storage yard in Western Australia on April 28.
According to the reports from The Guardian newspaper, Australian national broadcaster ABC News and The Sydney Morning Herald, the fire occurred in a storage yard in Bibra Lake, a suburb of Perth (archived links here, here, and here).
Pickles Auctions, which owns the yard, said in a statement: "Damage was contained to one area of a storage yard affecting 60 salvage vehicles and associated racking, with residual damage received to vehicles immediately surrounding the blaze" (archived link).
"There was no damage to warehouse facilities or offices, and no injuries," the statement added.
A spokesperson for Pickles previously told AFP via email on May 24 that "the cause of the incident at Bibra Lake is still yet to be determined by the investigators".
The original video was filmed by a Twitter user who posted it here on April 28 (archived link). The user's Twitter account also includes several other videos and photos of the fire at Pickles Auctions.
The storage yard can also be seen on Google Street View imagery here (archived link).
Below is a screenshot comparison of the video used in the false post (left) and the same location on Google Street View (right):
AFP has debunked other false claims linked to the riots in France here, here, here and here.
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