A viral video on social media (here and here) has a photo with an audio message. The photo shows several dead bodies lying around surrounded by onlookers. The audio message accompanying this photo claims that a group of 15-20 people, including women and children, come with weapons at midnight, and mercilessly kill people. The message further advises people to not open the door, and to share this message as widely as possible. Let’s verify this claim in this article.
Claim: A video warns of a gang of 25 members brutally killing people at midnight.
Fact: The photos featured in the viral video are from an incident on 24 June 2023, where eight members of the same family were attacked in the Kishani area of Mainpuri, resulting in six deaths. The attacker was reportedly a family member who shot himself after the murders. Further, the audio in the video is sourced from a 2019 news report by a local channel in Uttar Pradesh and has been misrepresented. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
A reverse image search of the picture in the viral video led to a tweet dated 24 June 2023, featuring the same image. The caption of the tweet reads: “Today’s biggest news from UP: 6 people were murdered with sharp weapons in Gokulpur Arsara village, under Kishani police station in Mainpuri district. Six members of the same family were killed while sleeping. There was a wedding in the family 3 days ago. Police are actively investigating the matter.”
Taking a clue from the tweet, a Google keyword search led us to the report (here) dated 24 June 2023. The report includes several pictures that match those used in the viral video. According to the report, six people were murdered with sharp-edged weapons in Gokulpur Arsara village, under Kishani police station. Six members of the same family were killed while they were sleeping.
Several media organizations (here, here, and here) covered the incident, reporting that eight members of the same family were attacked in the Kishani area of Mainpuri, resulting in six deaths while two others are in critical condition. It was reported that the attacker was a family member who shot himself after committing the murders.
We further investigated the context of the audio used in the video. After carefully listening to the viral audio, we searched our past reports on child kidnapping and discovered that the viral audio was from a video that was published in September 2019. Factly has previously fact-checked several pictures and videos related to child kidnapping (read here).
In 2019, a voiceover accompanied a video of a policeman alleging that some beggars around Gorakhpur in UP form gangs to kill children, removing their kidneys and livers, or kidnapping them. A small segment of this audio has been repurposed in the current viral video, which can be heard from 1 minute 05 seconds to 1 minute 30 seconds.
To sum up, a clipped video with unrelated audio is falsely shared as a warning about a gang of 25 members killing people at midnight.
