Footage of suicide attempt falsely linked to French protests
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on August 10, 2023 at 03:49
- 4 min read
- By Juliette MANSOUR, AFP France, AFP Hong Kong
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Warning: graphic images
The photo shows a man lying near a railway track next to a pool of blood.
"Rioting in France," reads a simplified Chinese caption post on Sina Weibo from July 2.
"This Frenchman was attacked while trying to protect his car."
The post surfaced after violent protests broke out across France following the death of Nahel M, a 17 year old of Algerian origin, who was shot dead by police in a Paris suburb on June 27 during a traffic stop (archived link).
Content warning
The same photo garnered thousands of shares in social media posts in various languages, including English, Greek, Chinese, Polish, Russian and Arabic.
While some social media users recognised the photo was not linked to the protests, others appeared to believe the claim.
"Le Pen did not come to power, France missed their last chance to be saved," read one comment, referring to French far-right politician Marine Le Pen.
"These violent ones should be killed immediately," another wrote.
Old photo
A reverse image search on Google found a video of the incident seen in the photo posted on Telegram on June 30 (archived link).
"ATTENTION SHOCKING," says French text superimposed on the clip.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the photo in false posts (left) and a screengrab of the video on Telegram (right):
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In the video, a voice can be heard giving the location of the scene as Porte de Choisy, opposite rue Carpentier and opposite the Carpentier gymnasium.
The location in the video corresponds to Google Street View imagery of Halle Georges Carpentier, on the border of Paris's 13th arrondissement and the commune of Ivry-sur-Seine, between the tram stops "Porte de Choisy" and "Châteaudun-Barbès", which are on the T9 line (archived link).
The T9 line is managed by transport operator Keolis (archived link).
A Keolis representative confirmed there was an incident at this location on October 18, 2022 in which a person tried to take their own life.
"Traffic was interrupted at 8:45 p.m. due to a suicide attempt," the spokesperson told AFP on July 13.
The tram company posted on Twitter -- which currently being rebranded as "X" -- on October 18, 2022 saying that service between the Musée Mac Val and Porte de Choisy was suspended due to an accident at Porte de Choisy (archived link).
Meanwhile, the Paris police prefecture confirmed to AFP on July 11 that the video was filmed in "late 2022" and was not related to riots in summer 2023.
Jérôme Coumet, mayor of the 13th arrondissement of Paris, also told AFP he was "never made aware of an incident, either by residents, police or social media, involving a man who allegedly had his hand cut off during the riots while trying to protect his car."
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