A viral video (here, here, and here) on social media allegedly shows a mosque in India that is set on fire. In the video, we see a white mosque-like building (especially its minaret) engulfed in flames. People can be seen running on the streets around the building and filming the incident. We fact-check this claim through this article.
Claim: Video of a mosque in India that was set on fire recently.
Fact: This incident in the viral video took place in Indonesia, not India. On 8 December 2024, a major fire broke out in Luwuk Central Market in Banggai Regency, Central Sulawesi province in Indonesia. During this incident, the mosque seen in the video was burnt down. Hence, the claim made in the post is False.
To check the veracity of the viral claim, we performed a reverse image search using a few keyframes from the viral video. This search led us to an Instagram post from 8 December 2024, which contained a video showing similar visuals as in the viral video.
This video shows the same incident shot from a different angle. The post description of this video in Javanese translated to English reads ‘Fire at Luwuk Banggai Central Market.’ Taking this as a hint, we performed a keyword search and found news reports about this incident in Indonesia’s Luwuk city. Indonesian media outlets like Tribun Palu, KompasTV, and Sulteng Raya have reported on this incident.
As per these reports (here and here), on 8 December 2024, a fire broke out in the Luwuk City central market, which is located in Banggai Regency, Central Sulawesi province. During this incident, many stalls in the market, including a mosque, were engulfed in flames. Some reports stated that a short circuit in a kitchen was the main cause of the fire, while other reports from 11 December 2024 stated that the police had told the media that the cause of the fire was unknown.
Photos and videos posted by locals and media outlets like Tolitoli News from the incident give us a closer look at the mosque seen in the viral video.
Further, we found the mosque seen in the viral video on Google Maps and identified it as ‘Masjid Al-Ikssan.’ This evidence confirms that the mosque is located in Indonesia and not in India, as claimed in the viral post.
In addition to this, we performed a keyword search to understand if such an incident occurred in India recently. However, we did not find any such reports.
To sum up, the viral video of a Mosque burning down does not show an incident in India. It was filmed in Indonesia.
