Fact Check: Viral video of powerful explosion makes a false claim; it occurred at Beirut Port but not at Odessa Port
A video collage showing a powerful explosion destroying the port and surrounding areas is shared virally on social media with the caption
Viral video of a powerful explosion that took place at Beirut port in 2020 is shared as an explosion in Odessa port in Ukraine
Fact Check:
The claim is misleading. The visuals show the explosion at Beirut Port, Lebanon in the year 2020.
When we performed a reverse image search of the key frames extracted from the video, we found several reports and social media posts sharing the same video published in the year 2020.
There had been multiple videos of the Beirut explosion which took more than 200 lives and injured around 5,000 people. The blast destroyed the immediate dockside area, creating a crater approximately 140 m wide.
The same visuals were posted in an Instagram post with the caption “The scariest thing you can experience. This explosion happened in Beirut in 2020 and of course, we knew about it but the video shows the explosion and recordings from different angles and captures how frightening war and experiences like this truly are.”
A YouTube channel with name Global News posted a video with the title “Beirut explosion: Video shows a new angle of the massive blast”
The collage video of the explosion was also published by Sky News with the title “Explained: What happened in deadly Beirut explosion”
A report in The Guardian shared screenshots similar to key frames in the viral video.
Here is the video published by The Guardian of the attack on the Black Sea port of Odessa, Ukraine. Russia reportedly targeted grain facilities and port infrastructure.
Therefore, the viral video is from the Beirut explosion in 2020, not Odessa, Ukraine. The claim is misleading.