A video of the Hyderabad firecracker stall accident shared with a false claim that 35 people lost lives in this incident
A viral video shows a fire accident in Paras Fireworks (banners visible in the video) stall. Social media users are sharing this video, claiming that it shows an incident that happened in Delhi’s Sadar Bazar, and some are claiming that 35 people lost their lives in this accident. We fact-check this claim through this article.
Claim: The fire accident seen in the viral video claimed the lives of 35 people.
Fact: The viral video shows a fire accident that occurred in the Paras fireworks stall located in Boggulakunta, Abids, Hyderabad, on 27 October 2024. According to the news reports, no casualties were reported in this incident. The SHO of Sultan Bazaar Police Station, where a case was registered against the stall owner for running it without any permit, clarified that only one person was injured and that no one lost their lives in this mishap. Hence, the claim made in the post is False.
To check the veracity of the claim, we performed a reverse image search using a few keyframes from the viral video. This search led us to a few news reports (here, here, and here) about the incident in the viral video, which occurred in Hyderabad on 27 October 2024 and not in Delhi.
As per these reports, the viral video shows a fire accident in the Boggulakunta area of Abids, Hyderabad. “A major fire broke out in a wholesale firecrackers store in Bogulkunta in Abids on Sunday. The incident occurred at Paras fire crackers, which was completely engulfed in flames,” TOI reported.
Contrary to the viral claim that 35 people have lost their lives in this incident, loss of life was not reported in any of the media reports (here, here, and here) related to this incident. In an interview with ANI, Sultan Bazaar ACP said that “a woman received minor injuries.”
Sultan Bazaar police later booked (here and here) the owner of Paras firecrackers for “not having permission or any safety equipment.”
To seek clarification about the viral claim, we contacted the SHO of Sultan Bazaar police station, Srinivasa Chary. He clarified that there is no truth in the claim that 35 people have lost their lives in this fire accident. As per the SHO, one woman named Anjamma was injured in the incident and was later discharged from the hospital after getting treatment. Additionally, we did not find any news reports about such a fire accident in Delhi’s Sadar Bazar. All of this evidence makes it clear that the video of an accident from Hyderabad is being shared with a fabricated story of 35 people losing their lives.
To sum up, a video of the Hyderabad firecracker stall accident is shared with a false claim that 35 people lost their lives in this incident.