An old video from a wildfire reported in Chile in February 2024 is viral with a false claim that it shows visuals of India's attack on Sialkot, Pakistan, during the Operation Sindoor.
BOOM found the video to be old and unrelated. The footage was captured in Chile during a massive wildfire in February 2024.
The video is circulating the caption, "Sialkot is done. Scenes from Sialkot Canal bridge. Pakistanis literally crying".
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
Fact Check: Video From Chile Wildfire, Not Pakistan
BOOM broke the video into keyframes and found a post from March 2, 2024, featuring the same video, with captions claiming it showed a wildfire in Texas, United States.
We then found a comment on the post from a user who said that the visuals are actually from the city, Viña del Mar in Chile.
Taking a cue, we ran a related keyword search in Spanish and found a post with the same video, shared by a Chile-based media outlet on February 4, 2024.
According to the post, the video shows a fire in the Valparaíso region, specifically in Achupallas, Viña del Mar in Chile.
Click here to view an archive of the post.
Based on this information, we were also able to geolocate the same area using Google Maps. One can see the location here.
We also found a news report published by the Associated Press on February 5, 2024, which reported that massive forest fires had broken out in central Chile two days earlier, killing at least 112 people.
On May 7, the Indian Army launched Operation Sindoor, targeting nine terror camps across various locations in Pakistan, including Sialkot. This operation was carried out in response to a deadly terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, in April, which claimed the lives of 26 people. Several news outlets, including The Washington Post, reported on the strikes, citing local sources who confirmed the Indian military's actions in Sialkot.
