Footage of parking lot fire in China falsely linked to Iran-Israel conflict
It shares a video with more than 25,000 views and shows people running away from a massive fire near a square.
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Screenshot of the false post taken on June 18, 2025, with a red X added by AFP
The posts emerged after Israel struck Iranian nuclear and military facilities with a barrage of missiles on June 13, killing several top officials and prompting a counter-attack by Iran (archived here and here).
The arch rivals have since exchanged attacks in their historical confrontation, fuelling fears of a drawn-out war that could engulf the Middle East.
The Israeli prime minister's office said on June 16 that at least 24 people have been killed and hundreds wounded by Iran's retaliatory strikes (archived link).
Iran said a day earlier that the Israeli strikes had killed at least 224 people, including military commanders, nuclear scientists and civilians.
The video has been shared with the same claim in Burmese, English, Thai, and Hindi.
But a combination of reverse image and keyword searches on Google found a video showing the same scene was published on the Chinese platform Xiaohongshu, known as RedNote in English, on June 12 (archived link).
"Electric scooters on fire in Jiulongpo in Chongqing," the clip's caption in simplified Chinese reads. "Electrical safety in the summer heat is really important."
Text on the video largely repeats the caption.
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Screenshot comparison of the false video (left) and the clip as seen on RedNote
Subsequent searches found that Chinese state outlet CGTN used the clip in a video report published on the same day about the fire (archived link).
Images of skyscrapers in the area published by Chinese search engine Baidu also match those seen in the false clip (archived link).
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Screenshot comparison of the frame from CGTN video (L) to the image from Baidu Maps of the surround area with similarities highlighted by AFP
The local government said in a press release that the fire was extinguished after 20 minutes with no casualties (archived link).
AFP have previously debunked misinformation related to the Iran-Israel war here.
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