Video of a 2013 chemical attack in Syria are passed off as those from Tamil Nadu - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
January 22, 2021
A post accompanying a video showing numerous dead bodies of children on the floor is being widely shared across social media platforms with a claim that these dead bodies of children were found in a container in Tamil Nadu. Through this article let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Dead bodies of children are found inside a container in Tamil Nadu.
Fact: These visuals actually show fatalities of a chemical attack in Ghouta, Syria during the Syrian civil war back in 2013. There are multiple news articles and news reporting videos that carried visuals similar to this video. This video has nothing to do with Tamil Nadu. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
Reverse image search of screenshots of the video in the post led us to a 2013 blog that shared an image similar to the visuals of the video. As per the blog, the image shows dead bodies of children who died in a chemical attack in Ghouta during the Syrian civil war back in August 2013.
Taking a cue from the blog, YouTube search with relevant keywords yielded us multiple 2013 news videos which carried visuals similar to the video in the post. A video by CNN also carried similar visuals. This report mentioned that the visuals show dead bodies of people who died in a chemical weapon attack in Syria back in 2013. Another news report of the Syrian chemical attack which carried similar visuals can be seen here.
Further Google search with relevant keywords led us to multiple 2013 news articles which reported the chemical attack in Ghouta, Syria. A news article by Aljazeera reported this chemical attack & carried visuals similar to the one in the post. Detailed analysis of this attack by Human Rights Watch also shared an image similar to the visuals of the video in the post. All these establish that the video shows dead bodies of a chemical attack in Syria back in 2013, and the video has nothing to do with Tamil Nadu.
When the same video and screenshots of the video went viral with a different claim, American fact-checking agency Snopes has fact-checked the claim and confirmed that these images are from a chemical attack in Ghouta, Syria.
To sum it up, video of 2013 chemical attack in Syria are passed off as those from Tamil Nadu.