Early in the morning on 20 December 2024, a devastating accident took place when a tanker loaded with liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) collided with an oncoming truck on the Jaipur-Ajmer highway. The fire that ignited from the crash quickly spread over, engulfing nearly 34 vehicles in flames. At least 14 people were killed in the accident. Amidst this, several photos and videos are going viral on social media (here, here, here, and here), claiming to show the Jaipur gas tanker explosion. Let’s verify the claim made in the post through this article.
Claim: The visuals show the Jaipur gas tanker explosion on 20 December 2024.
Fact: The visuals do not show the Jaipur gas tanker explosion that took place on 20 December 2024. The photo is from a petrol tanker fire on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway in Ogun State, Nigeria, on 02 December 2020. The first video is from the Beirut port blast in August 2020, caused by a fire in a warehouse storing ammonium nitrate. The second video is CCTV footage from Italy, showing a tanker crash near Bologna Airport on 06 August 2018. The third video is from an explosion at a fuel station in Grozny, Russia. None of these visuals are related to the Jaipur gas tanker explosion. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
Photo
A Google Lens search of the viral photo led us to the same photo (archived) on the website of the stock image website Alamy. The description revealed that the photo was taken when a petrol tanker caught fire on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway in Ogun State, Nigeria, on 02 December 2020.
We also found reports (here and here) (archived here and here) covering the same incident from December 2020. According to the reports, Federal Road Safety Commission Corridor Commander Kahinde Hamzat mentioned that the incident occurred at around 4 am on 02 December 2020, when a fuel tanker caught fire on the Magboro Bridge on the highway leading to Lagos.
Video 1
A reverse image search of the keyframes from the viral video led us to a report (archived) from The Guardian, dated August 2020, which includes several images of the blast that struck the Beirut dock. One of these images matches the visuals in the viral video.
We found reports (here) (archived) covering the same incident. According to the reports, a massive blast at Beirut’s port in Lebanon in August 2020 killed over 220 people and injured at least 6,500. The explosion was caused by a fire in a warehouse where ammonium nitrate had been poorly stored for years.
Video 2
A reverse image search of the keyframes from the viral video led us to the original video (archived), published by the Daily Mail YouTube channel on 07 August 2018, titled “CCTV captures moment tanker truck explodes in Italy.”
The video description revealed that it was CCTV footage from Italy, showing a petrol tanker crashing into vehicles on a motorway bridge near Bologna Airport on 06 August 2018. The burning vehicles later caused a massive explosion. The 41-year-old driver of the tanker was identified as one of the victims. Approximately 70 people were injured, some with serious burns.
Video 3
A reverse image search of the keyframes from the viral video led us to an X post (archived) by SubX News featuring the same video, dated 15 October 2024. The post suggested that the explosion occurred at a fuel station in Grozny, the capital of the Chechen Republic, Russia.
Taking a clue from the X post, we found a video (archived) published on CNN-News18 YouTube, dated 13 October 2024, matching the viral video. The description stated that four people, including two children, were killed in the explosion at a Grozny fuel station on 12 October 2024.
To sum up, old and unrelated photos and videos are falsely shared linking them to the Jaipur gas tanker explosion.
