A 2017 accident video of a fuel tanker in Saudi Arabia is falsely linked to the 2025 Madinah bus crash
A tragic bus accident near Madinah, Saudi Arabia, on 17 November 2025, reportedly killed 45 Indian Umrah pilgrims, mostly from Telangana, after the bus collided with a diesel tanker and caught fire. Eighteen members of a single Hyderabad family were among the victims. In the aftermath, a video showing a bridge engulfed in flames began circulating on social media, with claims that it captures the scene of the Saudi Arabia accident. India Today also featured this video on 17 November 2025, presenting it as footage from the Madinah bus crash. Let’s verify the claim made in the post in this article.
Claim: The video shows the 2025 bus crash near Madinah, Saudi Arabia, in which Indian Umrah pilgrims lost their lives.
Fact: The video does not show the recent Madinah bus accident. It is from a 2017 incident in which a 32-tonne fuel tanker overturned and caught fire on the Aqaba Shabar Road near the ninth tunnel on the Shaar mountain pass linking Abha, killing the driver. Hence, the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
A reverse image search of keyframes from the viral video led us to multiple media reports (here, here, and here) from 2017 featuring the same visuals. According to these reports, a 32-tonne fuel tanker overturned on the Aqaba Shabar Road near the ninth tunnel on the Shaar mountain pass linking Abha, and its driver was burnt to death. This confirms that the viral video is not from the recent Saudi Arabia incident in which several Indian pilgrims were reportedly killed.
We also found original footage of the Umrah pilgrims’ bus accident reported by multiple national and international media outlets (here, here, and here). Still, none of it matches the viral video.
To sum up, a 2017 accident video of a fuel tanker in Saudi Arabia is falsely linked to the 2025 Madinah bus crash.