Amid growing safety concerns on India’s rail network in recent years, a clip was shared with the false claim that it shows the aftermath of a train accident. A spokesperson for the Indian Railway Authority confirmed to AFP that the video shows a rescue exercise in the state of Rajasthan in western India in November. Local media also reported on the exercise, along with videos showing the same scene.
“Two trains collided near Bikaner Lalgarh railway station. Rescue operations are underway!! The unfortunate citizens do not even know that they have embarked on the last journey of their lives,” reads the Hindi-language caption of a post on X shared on November 14, 2024.
The 90-second video shows a train car stacked in another compartment as rescuers carry people away from the scene on stretchers.
At the end of the video, a person can be heard speaking in Hindi: “Accident due to collision of two trains near Lalgarh station. Many people are reportedly injured. Rescue operations are underway.”
The message has been viewed more than 538,000 times.
Lalgarh is a railway station in the Bikaner district of the state of Rajasthan (archived link).
Screenshot of the fake message, taken on November 19, 2024
The false claim emerged amid ongoing concerns about the safety of India’s aging railway system. Local media reported that 18 train accidents were recorded between April and August 2024, with poor track maintenance and outdated infrastructure often to blame (archived link).
In one of India’s deadliest accidents in recent decades, nearly 300 people were killed in June 2023 when a passenger train was accidentally diverted onto a loop line and crashed into a stationary freight train before the derailed compartments hit the carriages of another train traveling was driving in the opposite direction. direction.
Experts told AFP that the June 2023 accident showed that despite efforts to improve infrastructure, India’s complex and often outdated rail system still has a long way to go (archived link).
The clip was shared with similar claims elsewhere on Facebook here and here, and on X here.
Comments from users indicated that they believed the claim was real.
“There has been such a big accident in the country and the railway minister and the prime minister are busy with election campaigns,” one user commented.
“A poor man’s life has no value in this country, the railway minister should resign,” another user wrote.
But the video shows a train rescue exercise, not an actual accident.
Rescue exercise
A keyword search on Google found a longer version of the video uploaded on YouTube on November 14, 2024 by a local media outlet 24 News Rajasthan (archived link).
The headline in Hindi read: “Horrible train collision at Bikaner railway station! Fake exercise.”
The description of the clip states that it shows an exercise at the Lalgarh railway station in Bikaner. “The incident is part of the railway authority’s rescue exercise, which tests safety operations in case of emergency,” the report continued.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the clip shared in the fake posts (left) and the video uploaded to YouTube (right):
Screenshot comparison of the clip seen in fake messages (left) and on YouTube (right)
Other Indian news media also reported on the exercise (archived link).
Vinod Kumar Beniwal, a spokesman for the government-owned North Western Railways, confirmed that the video shows an exercise.
“The video is being shared with a false claim. Indian Railways conducts such mock drills from time to time to tackle train accidents,” Beniwal told AFP on November 18.
North Western Railways also shared a photo of the scene in the fake video in a post on November 15, 2024 on its official
AFP has found no credible media reports of recent train accidents in Rajasthan.
