Video of a burning church in France is shared as Manipur.
Claim
If you break someone’s temple, he will burn your church. If you play with someone’s religion, he will play with your religion. Why do you create a gap between man and man, you stay in your religion, we are ours. – #Manipur
Rating
Explanation
A 0:23-second video clip of the steeple of a church burning down is widely circulated. It is claimed that the video was captured in Manipur. One of the Congress supporters Deepesh Gupta shared the video with the caption “Manipur Sugnu Imphal. Violence arson is not stopping. Pro-BJP extremists destroyed the more than 300-year-old St. Joseph’s Church lit. Manipur is burning since 73 days and Prime Minister Modi is roaming abroad, I have never seen such a shameless and shameless Prime Minister”, with the ‘Manipur violence’ hashtag.
#मणिपुर सुग्नू इंफाल
नही थम रही हिंसा आगजनी
भाजपा समर्थक उग्रवादियो ने 300 साल से ज्यादा पुरानी St. Joseph's चर्च जलाई
73 दिनो से मणिपुर जल रहा है और प्रधानमंत्री मोदी विदेश घूम रहा है मैंने ऐसा बेशर्म निर्लज प्रधानमंत्री कभी नही देखा#ManipurViolence#ModiDisasterForIndia pic.twitter.com/xcYW6nvEBe— Deepesh Gupta (@AndbhaktJ) July 14, 2023
His tweet was quoted by the right-wing supporter Gopal Goswami mentioning it as Manipur. He quoted that the church was burnt as a result of the destruction of temples. Multiple other social media users shared the same video claiming it to be St.Joseph’s church in Manipur. Some of the posts can be seen here and here.
What is the truth?
When reverse searching the keyframes of the viral video we found that the video is from France and not from Manipur as claimed.
A Twitter page ‘World Source News 24/7’ tweeted the same video on 7, July 2023 to break the news that a 16th-century Catholic Church has been burnt to the ground in France.
🚨#BREAKING: A 16th century Catholic Church has been burnt to the ground in #France. pic.twitter.com/Doxoit6mge
— World Source News 24/7 (@Worldsource24) July 7, 2023
With further search, a Hindustan Times article is found featuring matching visuals from the viral video. This article dated July 8 reported that the video is from France as the riots erupted again. The same is found on its YouTube channel. The description part reads “After a brief lull, sporadic incidents of violence have again been reported in France. A 16th-century church was allegedly attacked in North-Eastern France. The massive fire turned the ancient church in Drosnay into ashes. Cops fear that this could be an act by those protesting against teen’s killing”.
We found an article on ‘France Info’ with the title translated as “A historic wooden church destroyed by a fire in the Marne, the symbol of the village that disappears”, carrying multiple images from the location. In Drosnay, in the Marne, a historic half-timbered church was destroyed by fire on Friday, July 7. The article also published images of destroyed church.
The reason behind the act is unknown. But the police suspect that it could be an act by the rioters against the teen’s killing by police over a traffic check. Social media users shared multiple old and unrelated videos as France riots that erupted after the teen, Nahel was shot dead in Paris. Youturn fact-checked some of them and published articles on the same.
Read More: Right wing uses 2019 video from France to spread communal hatred.
Old, unrelated videos shared as visuals from France riots.
Also Read: Video of a massive fire in Massachusetts church is shared with misleading claims.
Conclusion
It is found that a video of fire in a church in France is shared to falsely claim that it is St.Joseph’s church from Manipur seen burning in the video.
