Old photo from Italy’s Milan city shared as the picture of a melted traffic light in Lucknow - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
June 20, 2023
A photo is being shared on social media claiming it is a picture of a melted traffic signal light in Lucknow city in Uttar Pradesh. The post claims that the traffic light melted due to extremely high temperatures in Lucknow. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Photo of a traffic signal light that melted down due to summer heat in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh.
Fact: The image shared in the post shows a traffic signal light in Milan, Italy. The traffic light melted because of the heat caused by a burning two-wheeler at the junction joining Via Bermago and Viale Regina streets in Milan. The photo has nothing to do with Lucknow city in India. Hence, the claim made in the post is False.
On reverse image search of the photo shared in the post, we found that the same photo was being shared on social media by many users at least since August 2022. While a few shared the photo mentioning it is from Turkey, a few other users shared the photo mentioning it is a picture taken in Yunistan city in Greece. Sharing the same photo, many news websites published articles in 2022. They can be seen here and here.
A Facebook user shared the same video in 2022, mentioning it is the picture of a melted traffic signal light in Milan City in Italy. When we searched for further sources using keywords on the internet, we found a similar photo in an article published by the ‘Open’ fact-checking site. This article reported it is the picture of a melted traffic light at a junction joining the Via Bermago and Viale Regina Margherita streets in Milan. As per the report, on 25 July 2022, a two-wheeler parked adjacent to the traffic light caught fire at the junction. The traffic light reportedly melted due to the heat caused by the burning scooter.
On comparing the Google Maps images of the traffic light at the junction joining the Via Bermago and Viale Regina Margherita streets with that of the photo shared in the post, it can be confirmed that the photo shared in the post shows a traffic signal light in Italy’s Milan city, not from Lucknow city in India.
To sum it up, an old photo from Italy’s Milan city is shared as a picture of a melted traffic light in Lucknow.