Austria fire photo misrepresented as Iran strike on Netanyahu's office
- Published on March 23, 2026 at 09:45
- 2 min read
- By Chayanit ITTHIPONGMAETEE, AFP Thailand
Iran's Revolutionary Guards vowed to target Benjamin Netanyahu as the war with Israel and the United States continued, but a photo supposedly showing the Israeli premier's office ablaze after a drone strike is unrelated. It actually depicts a massive fire at a residential complex in Austria during New Year's Eve celebrations.
"Iran attacked Israel heavily with drones, especially on Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu's office," reads a Thai-language Facebook post on March 15, 2026.
It features a nighttime photo of a large blaze engulfing several buildings, with bystanders visible in the foreground.
Similar claims surfaced in posts written in Thai, English and Urdu as war raged in the Middle East, triggered by a joint US-Israel attack on Iran in late February (archived link).
Tehran retaliated by firing missiles and drones at Israel and across the Gulf, with the conflict plunging the world into its worst energy crisis in decades.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards also vowed to "pursue and kill" Netanyahu, according to their website Sepah News (archived link).
But there have been no official reports to support the claims made in the posts, which share an unrelated picture.
Austria residential fire
A reverse image search on Google led to a video showing the same blaze shared on January 1, 2026 on an Instagram account that documents fire incidents (archived link).
The caption says the fire broke out in a residential building in Traun, Austria, during New Year's Eve celebrations.
Keyword searches on Google found a report by the Austrian newspaper Kronen Zeitung the same day, which said a massive blaze broke out shortly after midnight, engulfing the roof of a multi-storey apartment block (archived link).
According to the report, the fire was likely caused by a stray firework during New Year's celebrations. Approximately 70 residents were evacuated from the burning complex, with four people treated for minor injuries and dozens more sheltered by the Red Cross at a local sports stadium.
The report identified the location of the blaze as a residential complex on Guido Holzknecht-Straße in Traun, which corresponds to Google Maps street view imagery of the area (archived link).
Austria's public broadcaster Österreichischer Rundfunk also reported on the incident and included similar images from the scene (archived link).
AFP has debunked other misinformation linked to the Middle East war.
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