A video is being shared widely on social media with a claim that it shows oxygen tankers being sent to India from Saudi Arabia. The video is being shared is being in the context of the current medical oxygen requirement in the country to treat COVID-19 patients. Let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Video of oxygen tankers being sent to India from Saudi Arabia.
Fact: The video shows empty tankers being sent from Mumbai to Visakhapatnam to load them with liquid medical oxygen. The same video was also shared as oxygen tankers from Pakistan. While it is true that 80MT of liquid oxygen was shipped from Saudi Arabia and necessary support was offered by Pakistan, the video is neither related to Saudi Arabia nor Pakistan. Hence the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
When the screenshots of the video were run through Google Reverse Image Search, the same video was found to be uploaded on YouTube by several media agencies. ‘ANI News’ has posted the video with the title – ‘‘Ro-Ro’ service: ‘Oxygen Express’ train leaves for Visakhapatnam Steel Plant from Mumbai’, on 19 April 2021. The same video was also found to be tweeted by ‘Central Railway’ and ‘Piyush Goyal’ (Minister of Railways) with a similar description on 19 April 2021. The tankers in the video are empty and they are being sent to Visakhapatnam to load them with ‘liquid medical oxygen’. More details can be read here and here.
The official Twitter account of the Indian Embassy in Riyadh (‘India in Saudi Arabia’) has tweeted on 24 April 2021 that 80 MT liquid oxygen is being shipped from Saudi Arabia in partnership with the Adani group and M/s Linde. While it is true that oxygen has been shipped from Saudi Arabia, the posted video is not related to it.
Videos of Oxygen supply to India from Pakistan?
The same video (archived) is being shared on social media with a claim that it shows oxygen tankers being sent from Pakistan to India. The news reports about Pakistan offering support to India can be read here and here. But the posted video is not related to Pakistan.
Earlier, another video also went viral with a similar claim. FACTLY has debunked it and written a fact-check article, which can be read here.
To sum it up, an unrelated video is being shared as oxygen tankers being sent to India from Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.
