Video shows fire in New Taipei City, not 'building collapsing after missile strike' during Taiwan war games

"Breaking: New Taipei City, Taiwan Province, China. A missile was suspected to have hit a residential building during military drills. It caused the building to collapse, the number of dead and injured cannot be estimated," read a simplified Chinese X post shared on July 23, 2024.

The post went on to claim the missile did not explode on impact, instead causing the collapse after it fell on the building's main support beam.

The accompanying 17-second clip shows clouds of cinder-grey smoke rising from a street-side building, with two fire trucks parked in the foreground.

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Screenshot of the false X post, captured on July 26, 2024

The claim surfaced on the same day Taiwan launched its annual war games, aiming to more realistically simulate an attack from China, dropping drills deemed to be out-of-touch with the growing threat of conflict.

The changes came as Beijing, which claims Taiwan as part of its territory, increased its military presence in the skies and waters around the island.

Officials said such drills will now be held on Taiwan's outlying islands, where Chinese vessels and warplanes have edged closer, and that troops would now take part in "impromptu" exercises.

The clip was also shared elsewhere on X here and here, as well as on Facebook and Weibo.

Some social media users left comments that suggested the "missile attack" could be a coup or was launched by China.

"Possibly a military coup? Someone leading an uprising," one said.

"The Communist military is coming," another wrote.

But the video is unrelated to the military drills.

Banqiao fire

Keyword searches on Google found the New Taipei City government refuted false information about the incident on July 24 (archived link).

"New Taipei City Hall today (24) clearly states that the scene was a fire at tin shack breakfast shops and a neighbouring warehouse. The blaze was extremely large due to a pile-up of flammable items," read the government statement. 

It added there had been no casualties.

A further reverse image search on Google found similar photos of the incident in a report by Taiwanese media outlet ETtoday on July 22, 2024, titled "Fire on Banqiao Duxing road! Four shopfronts and 12 motorcycles completely burnt" (archived link). 

The report states that the fire took place in a block of tin shacks, but there were no injuries or people trapped.

Below is a screenshot comparison between the video in the false posts (left) and the photos published by ETtoday (right), with similarities marked by AFP: 

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Screenshot comparison between the video in the false posts (left) and the photos published by ETtoday (right)

Keyword searches found no official reports of a missile attack in Taiwan since the annual war games started on July 22.