Video of factory fire in Taiwan falsely shared as junta bombing in Myanmar border town

"Ammunition storage explosion in Laukkai which has been targeted for the third time," read part of a Burmese-language Facebook post on July 19, 2024.

Myanmar's junta has bombarded Laukkai -- a township near the border with China that has been held by the rebel Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army since January 2024 -- several times in July (archived link).

The latest strike on August 2 hit a hospital, killing 10 (archived link).

The accompanying 30-second video showed a massive column of black smoke rising into the sky from a fire in the distance.

A man's voice can be heard in the video saying: "Laukkai has been bombed in an airstrike. Ammunition storage has been destroyed."

Burmese-language sticker text repeats the claim.

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Screenshot of the false post taken on August 2, 2024

Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military staged a coup in February 2021 that ousted Aung San Suu Kyi's democratically-elected government and unleashed conflict across the country.

The same video was also published alongside similar false claims on YouTube and TikTok.

But the video shows a fire at a factory in southern Taiwan.

Factory explosion in Taiwan

Keyword and reverse image searches using keyframes from the video led to a longer TikTok video published on July 18, 2024, which included Indonesian-language captions that read "Taiwan is on fire" (archived link).

Below is the screenshot comparison of the video from the false post (left) and the TikTok video (right):

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Screenshot comparison of the video from the false post (left) and the TikTok video (right)

There is no one speaking in the original footage.

Further keyword searches found a video report by Taiwan News on July 18, 2024 that said an explosion had occurred at a factory in the southern city of Tainan (archived link).

Aerial footage in the video showed features including a Chinese temple and blue water tower that match those seen in the TikTok video.

A separate article by Taiwan News stated the fire broke out in Tainan's Shanshang Industrial Zone and that all the employees were evacuated with no reported casualties in the incident (archived link).

Google Maps Street View imagery from the industrial area shows features corresponding to those seen in the TikTok video, including a sign for the Guang Eou aluminium factory and the red temple (archived link).

Below is a screenshot comparison of a frame from the TikTok video (left) and the Google Street View imagery (right):

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Screenshot comparison of a frame from the TikTok video (left) and the Google Street View imagery (right)