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| - Fact Check: Video of car fuel tank exploding in Uzbekistan falsely shared as electric car blast in India
A video allegedly showing an electric car blowing up has been making the rounds on social media with many claiming that the incident is from India.
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India Today Fact Check
This video shows the fuel tank of a car exploding in Uzbekistan’s Samarkand.
A scary video allegedly showing an electric car blowing up has been making the rounds on social media. In the video, within seconds of the blast, smoke can be seen billowing out of the trunk of the car. Additionally, a man trying to flee from the scene is knocked down by a red projectile.
One person shared the video claiming that this incident took place in India. The tweet read, “Electric car blows off while charging. Such incidents (accidents) seem to be happening here and there - in India. Whatever it is, it appears that this technology will take some more time to be fully a commercial success.” Archives of such posts can be seen here, here and here.
India Today, in its investigation, found that this video is neither from India nor does it show an electric car. In fact, the red object that hit the man in the viral clip was the fuel tank of the car.
OUR PROBE
A reverse search of keyframes from the viral video led us to a tweet from February 28, 2023, carrying an extended version of the viral clip. The datestamp on this camera footage read February 25, 2023. The tweet read, “In Samarkand (Uzbekistan), the balloon ricocheted and hit a gas station employee right in the head. The man died on the spot.”
Using this clue, we searched online and found a Turkish news report carrying the viral footage of the accident. The report stated that the fuel tank of a car exploded while a man was refuelling his car at a gas station in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. It added that a part of the tank that blew up claimed the life of a 42-year-old officer who was trying to escape. Another report stated that a 1994 Nexia-3 car exploded at a gas station on Bedil street in Samarkand.
Several other media outlets reported about this car blast in Uzbekistan around that time. One such report contained a message from a telegram channel named “Samarqand viloyati FVB” — the emergency department of the Samarkand Region. This message carried photos of the destroyed car and the broken red cylinder along with the details of the accident.
Roughly translated to English, the message stated that on February 25, at 11:30 am, a worker died at a fuel station on M. Bedil street, Samarkand, while refuelling the gas cylinder of a Nexia 3 car manufactured in 2019. No other casualties were reported. The same information was also shared by the department on its Facebook page.
While incidents of electric cars catching fire and exploding have earlier been reported in different parts of India, the viral video does not depict that.
(Written by Sanjana Saxena)
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