By: Rajini KG
July 5 2023
No, this is not a building set on fire by protesters in France
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Fact-Check
The Verdict False
The video of a fire engulfing a high-rise building in the UAE is being misrepresented.
Claim ID e840e162
Context
Protests broke out in France over the fatal shooting of teenager Nahel Merzouk by a police officer in Nanterre, Paris, on June 27. While the unrest that spread across the country is slowly subsiding, many videos claiming to show the violence are making rounds on social media.
One such video shows a tall apartment building on fire. The caption claims, "Alerts In France, media shutdown, complete censorship in France and ban on all reporting. Every building is being set on fire by Muslim rioters, shops are being looted. But I want to know, will this tower collapse like the World Trade Center Towers of 9/11?" Similar claims were also shared on Facebook, with users criticizing Muslims, Bill Gates, and the World Economic Forum (WEF) for the riots in France.
However, the claim is false. The viral video is from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and not France.
In Fact
Through a reverse image search on one of the video’s keyframes, we found the same video on a YouTube channel named 'Nabeelofficial,' uploaded on June 29. The text on the video reads, "Fire in Dubai Ajman." Ajman and Dubai are the cities in UAE. This video was also uploaded by others with a similar caption.
A keyword search led us to a Sky News article published on June 27 which included a video of this incident from a different angle of attempts being made to douse the fire. The video was titled: "Huge fire engulfs high-rise apartment building in UAE."
On June 27, the official Twitter account of the Ajman police shared a video of the same building and the aftermath of the fire, with the caption, "Civil defense teams managed to put out a fire that broke out in a residential tower in Ajman."
According to the Ajman police, a fire broke out in Ajman One Tower (02), and 64 apartments and ten vehicles were damaged. Around 250 people were evacuated and accommodated in hotels after the incident. Lieutenant Colonel Ghaith Al-Kaabi said the cause of the fire is being investigated.
A Gulf News report from June 27 published pictures of the building on fire and stated that the Civil Defence and Ajman police were engaged in controlling the fire. The rescue operation was ongoing when Gulf News visited the affected site.
The Verdict
A video of a residential building engulfed in flames at Ajman One complex in UAE has been falsely linked to the violent protests in France.