Clip of fire on Malaysian light rail generated with AI help
- Published on November 6, 2025 at 07:49
- 2 min read
- By Raevathi SUPRAMANIAM, AFP Malaysia
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There have been no fires on the light rail transit (LRT) system in Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur in November, its operator said, contrary to social media posts claiming a video shows firefighters putting out a blaze on a train on the Ampang Line. The clip contains visual inconsistencies indicating it was generated with the help of AI.
"Fire on the Ampang Line is still under investigation to determine the cause of the blaze," reads the Malay-language caption of a TikTok video shared on November 3, 2025.
The Ampang Line is one of three LRT lines serving the Klang Valley, an area that covers Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur and the neighbouring state of Selangor (archived link).
The video loops a clip that appears to show a train engulfed in flames while firefighters attempt to put it out. Superimposed Malay-language text reads, "Fire on the Ampang Line".
Comments on similar TikTok posts sharing the clip indicated that users believed there had been a train fire.
"Where is the transport minister... so many calamities since this government took over," read one comment.
Another said: "May God ease everything."
But, as of November 5, there have been no official reports or statements of a fire on the LRT network.
A keyword search on Google led to similar false posts sharing the clip, including another TikTok post that features the watermark of Google's AI assistant Gemini.
"All images created or edited in the Gemini app include a visible watermark, as well as our invisible SynthID digital watermark, to clearly show they are AI-generated," says a Google blog post about image editing with Gemini (archived link)
A closer analysis of the circulating video also shows it includes visual inconsistencies that are a hallmark of AI-generated content.
The firefighters in the video are wearing different gear to that worn by the Malaysian fire department, who wear orange. And the nozzle held by one firefighter as he douses the flames does not appear to be attached to a hose.
Prasarana Malaysia Berhad, a government-owned company that manages the country's major public transport services, also issued a statement on its official Facebook page on November 3 confirming no fire had occurred (archived link).
"Prasarana emphasises that the video currently circulating on social media, which supposedly depicts an incident involving a train carriage on the Ampang Line, is entirely false," it said in the statement.
It added that all its trains and facilities were operating normally and warned that it would not hesitate to take action against those spreading false information that could mislead the public.
AFP has frequently debunked AI-generated visuals that are passed off as genuine depictions of accidents and disasters online.
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