Clip of gas station explosion in Romania falsely linked to Middle East war
- Published on March 11, 2026 at 09:17
- 2 min read
- By AFP Middle East & North Africa
- Translation and adaptation AFP Indonesia
Tehran has launched missiles against Israel in retaliation for a joint Israeli-US attack that killed its supreme leader, but footage of a massive explosion circulating on social media does not show the impact of an Iranian ballistic missile fired at Tel Aviv. The footage in fact shows an explosion at an unlicensed liquefied petroleum gas filling station north of Romania's capital Bucharest in August 2023.
"Circulating footage shows an Iranian ballistic missile did not immediately explode when it hit Tel Aviv. It exploded when firefighters arrived at the scene," says Indonesian-language text over a TikTok video shared on March 8, 2026.
The video, which has been viewed more than 61,200 times, shows a massive explosion on what appears to be a residential street.
The same footage was also shared in similar Facebook, Instagram and X posts.
It circulated as Iran carried out missile and drone strikes against Israel and American targets in the Middle East in retaliation for a joint US-Israeli attack launched on February 28 that killed its supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (archived link).
Alongside the ongoing campaign against Iran, Israel has been waging another offensive in Lebanon against Hezbollah, after the Iran‑backed group launched a drone and rocket attack on northern Israel in response to Khamenei's killing (archived link). Despite fighting on two fronts, casualties inside Israel remain limited.
US President Donald Trump said on March 9 that the war -- which has engulfed other countries in the region and shaken the global economy -- would end "very soon", having previously said Tehran's "unconditional surrender" was the only acceptable outcome for ending the war (archived link).
The circulating video, however, is unrelated to the Middle East war.
Gas station explosion
A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the falsely shared video found a longer version posted on the official YouTube channel of Euronews Romania on August 26, 2023 (archived link).
The video's description says it shows unedited footage of an explosion that occurred in the Crevedia commune, north of Romania's capital Bucharest.
AFP reported that the explosion was one of two at an unlicensed liquefied petroleum gas filling station that left two people dead and 56 people injured on August 26, 2023 (archived link).
Most of the injured were firefighters who rushed to the station to extinguish the blaze from the first explosion before the second occurred.
Prosecutors said at the time that the fire started while gas was transferred from one tanker to another.
AFP also shared the footage on its official YouTube channel (archived link).
Moreover, the footage corresponds to Google Street View imagery from Crevedia (archived link).
AFP has debunked a wave of misinformation related to the conflict in Iran.
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