Clip shows car park fire in Spain, not factory in Thailand

Published on September 3, 2025 at 09:56
3 min read
By Pasika KHERNAMNUOY, Lucía DIAZ, AFP Thailand, AFP Spain

Footage viewed millions of times on social media shows a fire at a car park outside Spain's capital Madrid, contrary to Khmer-language posts claiming it shows a Thai factory in flames following five days of hostilities along the country's border with Cambodia in July 2025. Spanish authorities told AFP the circulating footage corresponds to a blaze they responded to in late June.

The video, showing a row of parked cars on fire with thick black smoke rising into the sky, accumulated nearly two million views on Facebook after being shared on August 17, 2025.

Khmer-language text superimposed on the video says it shows a "car factory fire in Thailand."

Screenshot of the false Facebook post captured August 27, 2025, with a red X added by AFP

The same footage circulated widely among Cambodian users elsewhere on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok after Phnom Penh and Bangkok agreed to a ceasefire that ended five days of deadly border clashes on July 29 (archived link).

The clashes, boiling over from a long-running border row between the Southeast Asian neighbours, killed at least 43 people on both sides and forced more than 300,000 people to flee their homes.

A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the circulating clip led to the same footage shared June 29 on X (archived link).

The 14-second video is captioned "Algete" -- a municipality located around 30 kilometres (18 miles) northeast of Madrid.

Screenshot comparison of the falsely shared clip (L) and the footage posted June 29

Subsequent keyword searches led to a similar video posted the same day to a YouTube channel belonging to the region's emergency services (archived link).

Its Spanish-language title reads: "Fire in a vehicle parking lot in Algete with a large column of smoke."

The footage and similar images appeared in Spanish media reports, which said more than 200 vehicles were burned when a June 28 grass fire spread to a nearby parking lot (archived here and here). No injuries were reported.

Screenshot comparisons of the June 29 X video (L) and a similar YouTube video posted by emergency services, with corresponding elements highlighted by AFP

A spokesperson for the Madrid 112 emergency service told AFP on August 29 that the falsely circulating video matches the fire they responded to in Algete in late June.

The footage also corresponds to Google Maps imagery of the area (archived link).

AFP has previously debunked other misinformation related to the border clashes between Thailand and Cambodia.

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