UK church fire video does not relate to migrants: police
- Published on September 5, 2025 at 17:23
- Updated on September 9, 2025 at 19:12
- 2 min read
- By Bill MCCARTHY, AFP USA
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"UK: A church in Wales was set on fire by 2 Pakistani migrants," says an August 27, 2025 post on X. "Christianity under attack in the UK."
Similar posts spread across X and other platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram. They also circulated in multiple languages, including Dutch and German.
The posts came as protests flared for weeks outside hotels housing asylum seekers in England, highlighting an intense debate over immigration in the United Kingdom.
But the video shared online was not captured in August -- nor does it show a chapel torched by Pakistani immigrants, according to local police.
A reverse image search revealed the footage has circulated on TikTok since at least April 24, when a user posted that it took place in Port Talbot, Wales. The search also surfaced similar images in news reports detailing a fire that evening that burned the disused Bethany English Calvinistic Methodist Chapel in the Welsh town (archived here, here and here).
The historic church, established in 1879, closed in 2000 (archived here).
According to the Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service, crews responded with six water jets to extinguish the fire, which stretched until the early hours of April 25 and left the building "severely damaged" (archived here).
No evidence of migrant connection
Allegations that Pakistani migrants torched the church first spread in the days after the fire, but authorities quickly debunked them.
South Wales Police said in an April 28 statement that officers arrested two teenagers -- a 14-year-old boy and a 15-year-old boy, both from the county borough of Neath Port Talbot -- on suspicion of arson (archived here).
They did not release the names of the teenagers, however, because in UK law they have the right to anonymity until they turn 18.
On X, the police corrected several users pushing the claims, including Jones, who shared the video in a since-deleted April 28 post and asserted that "a church in Wales was set on fire by 2 Pakistani invaders."
"This is completely false information," the agency wrote in replies to Jones's post and others (archived here and here). "Two teenagers, both from Neath Port Talbot, have been arrested on suspicion of arson in connection with this incident."
In another post, they added (archived here): "Other rumours circulating online are false and inflammatory and we urge people not to share such claims."
Oliver Roderick, communications officer for the South Wales Police, reiterated in a September 8 statement to AFP that the posts blaming Pakistani migrants in August were "false information."
"There is no link to Pakistan whatsoever," said Roderick, who added the two teenagers remained under investigation.
Local media also reported at the time that two minors were arrested, and AFP found no official reports pinning the blaze on Pakistani migrants.
Jones, founder of the conspiratorial website InfoWars, has repeatedly spread disinformation -- and was found liable in multiple defamation lawsuits for claiming the 2012 Sandy Hook elementary school mass shooting was a hoax.
AFP has fact-checked other claims about migration here.
This fact-check was updated to include comment from Oliver Roderick of the South Wales Police.September 9, 2025 This fact-check was updated to include comment from Oliver Roderick of the South Wales Police.
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