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| - Fact Check: Yemeni militants burnt Israeli ship? No, this 2021 video is from Sri Lanka
India Today Fact Check found that the video in question shows a Singapore-registered cargo ship that caught fire in May 2021.
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India Today Fact Check
This video is from May 2021 and shows MV X-Press Pearl, the Singapore-registered container ship that caught fire near the Sri Lankan coast.
Amid emerging reports detailing the seizure of a cargo ship in the Red Sea by Yemen's Houthi militants, a video of a burning cargo vessel has been shared by many on social media.
People sharing this video on Facebook asserted that the container ship named “Calandra” or “Kalandra”, purportedly owned by the Israeli company ZIM, being set ablaze in the Indian Ocean by the Yemeni armed forces.
Similar posts were shared on Instagram and X as well. The archived version of such a post can be seen here.
India Today Fact Check found that the video is from May 2021 and shows a cargo vessel carrying a consignment of chemicals near Sri Lanka that caught fire.
Our Probe
We conducted a keyword search to verify if Houthi militants from Yemen had been linked to any recent incidents of a cargo ship fire, but our search yielded no relevant results.
After conducting a reverse search on keyframes from the viral video, we found the same footage in a Russian news report dated May 25, 2021. The report indicated that the incident occurred near the port of Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka.
The report mentioned that on May 20, 2021, a fire was detected on a cargo ship carrying a consignment of chemicals. On May 25, an explosion occurred, leading to a massive blaze.
Subsequent advanced keyword searches based on the report led us to a press release by the Indian Press Information Bureau stating that the Indian Government deployed three of its ships — Samudra Prahari, Vaibhav, and Vajrato — to combat the fire. The release also highlighted that MV X-Press Pearl was transporting 1,486 containers of nitric acid and other hazardous chemicals.
We also found similar visuals of the accident on various other news reports and Instagram accounts from May 25, 2021.
According to a Hindustan Times report dated May 30, 2021, no casualties were reported as the crew had already evacuated the vessel, and authorities successfully brought the fire under control in the meantime. The ship, however, sank a couple of days later during an attempt to tow the vessel to deeper waters.
MV X-Press Pearl, the Singapore-registered container ship fiasco not only resulted in a monetary loss of millions but also caused long-term environmental damage to the Indian Ocean around the Sri Lankan coast.
An editorial in the Maritime Executive highlighted that the fire was attributed to the leakage of nitric acid, which was inadequately or incorrectly packed or stowed. Nitric acid is known for its corrosive, toxic, and flammable substance, and the ship was carrying 25 tonnes of it.
Therefore, it is clear that a two-year-old video was falsely linked to the capture of an Israeli cargo ship by Yemeni militants.
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