Several old videos including the Vizag gas leak video reappear as an attack of poisonous bees in India
Around six-seven video clips have been viral on Facebook with claims that there was an attack by poisonous bees that caused several deaths in India.
The videos were posted with captions in Indonesia that read, “Serangan Lebah Beracun Yang Mematikan Mengakibatkan Orang Meninggal Dunia Di India. Mayat Berjatuhan Akibat Gigitan Lebah Kurang Dari 1 Menit. Menurut Informasi Yang Kami Terima Bahwa Kejadian Tersebut Terjadi Pada Pagi Dini Hari, Minggu (10/05) Waktu India”.
This translates to “Deadly Poisonous Bee Attack Causes Death in India. The corpse fell due to bee bites in less than 1 minute. According to information we received that the event occurred early morning, Sunday (10/05) Indian Time”.
A Facebook user named ‘Said Husein’ posted three videos along with two images of the bees with claims in Indonesian that the attack by the bees took place in India on May 13 2020.
Another Facebook user ‘Shasy Panji lik’ posted three additional videos with the same claim in Indonesian that there was an attack by poisonous bees in India.
Truth
The claim is False.
First Video
The first video of people running on the road with cars moving is not from India but is from Metrocentro Mangua, a shopping mall in Managua, Nicaragua. Similar visuals were seen in another Facebook post on April 5 2020 by ‘Pablo Garcia’ with a caption “The wasps also say # StayEnTuPutaCasa”.
Additonally, there were tweets that asked whether the video on Facebook of a lot of people being stung by bees in Metrocentro.
The Fire Department in Managua, located near the shopping center, posted that the incident had happened outside Metrocentro shopping mall on April 5,2020.
Second, third and fourth video
The second video of a woman falling on the ground with ambulance noises in the background and a person with a yellow helmet trying to save her, the third video containing a man holding a kid with the police helping him take the child with a Vishaka Patnam Steel Plant vehicle near him and the fourth video of people on the ground with vehicles on them are all videos of the Gas Leak at a Chemical plant in Vishakapatnam.
This gas leak killed at least 12 people and left hundreds injured.
The New Delhi bureau of French public television channel France TV 2 posted a video on May 7, 2020 titled when translated, “India: gas leak in a chemical factory”. The descriptions when translated said, “In the middle of the night, a gas leak occurred at the LG Polymers plant in the city of Visakhapatnam in southeast India. The toxic gas cloud has spread over a radius of 3 to 5 kilometres, affecting thousands of inhabitants. The accident could be related to containment, the factory had just reopened”.
The video contains the visuals of all the three viral videos. The second video that went viral can be seen in the 30th second of the video, the third video can be seen in the first few seconds of the video and the fourth video can be seen from the 36th second onward.
Several other videos that contain similar visuals as the viral video include a video by Prag News which was uploaded on YouTube on May 7, 2020 and a video by NR Advertisement titled “Toxic Gas Leakage from LG polymers | Creates High Tension @ Vizag | Vizag Gas Leak Video | NRA” also uploaded on Youtube on May 6, 2020.
The Vizag Gas leak video have also received a COVID-19 spin off which was fact checked.
Fifth video
The fifth video where bees can be seen in the visuals and a supermarket can be seen in the background. A Facebook post that dates on May 6, 2020 can be seen having the same visuals as the viral video. The post was captioned in Spanish and when translated said, ” This happened at 204 and Valentíne, a bee outbreak”. The post refers to 204th St dan Valentine Ave at the Bronx, New York City.
The street view clearly shows similar visuals as the viral video.
Sixth video
The sixth video of a bee attacking rat is not from India and is an old video that was uploaded in YouTube on July 2018.
The Daily Mail reported that this incident took place in Gulfport, Mississippi, USA
Images
The image of the bee in the viral post is actually an iStock photo titled “Japanese giant hornet closeup macro, also called giant sparrow bee stock photo”.
Therefore the poisonous bee attack did not take place in India.
