A video of two mannequins being burnt at a stake from a Halloween party held at a theme park in China is viral with a false claim that it shows Hindus being burnt in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh has been witnessing continuous communal tensions, since the fall of the Hasina government. The recent arrest of a Hindu monk Chinmoy Krishna Das on November 25, 2024 has sparked further outrage with right wing groups in India alleging a threat to Hindus in the country.
In the seven seconds video, two bodies are seen tied to a stake while a fire burns below.
The video is being shared on X with a caption in Hindi that translates to, "All Hindus and all central and state governments of India should watch this with wide open eyes. The torture of Hindu brothers and sisters in Bangladesh has reached its peak. If possible, spread this to as many people as possible so that the Hindus divided on the basis of castes and the governments busy with elections can sleep peacefully."
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FACT-CHECK: Viral Video of mannequins from Halloween party in China
BOOM found that the viral video is from a Halloween party at a theme park in China, showing two mannequins being burnt at the stake.
We broke the video into key-frames and ran a reverse image search using Google Lens and found results showing that the video is old and not from Bangladesh as being claimed.
Viral video previously shared with false claims of cannibalism in Haiti and Nigeria
The same video was previously viral on X in November 2024, with false claims that it shows an incident of cannibalism in Haiti. The replies to the X post pointed out that the claim was false and had shared a fact-check on the video by Sin Chew Daily, a Chinese-language newspaper in Malaysia.
The article from January 2020 states that the viral video is actually from a Halloween party at Chimelong Ocean Kingdom theme park in Zhuhai, China, in 2018. The same video was then being shared falsely as an incident of cannibalism at a Nigerian restaurant. We can seen the same visuals of the mannequin hanging in the featured image of the article as in the viral video.
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Video from Halloween party at China's Chimelong Ocean Kingdom theme park
Chimelong Ocean Kingdom theme park is located in Zhuhai, China. Taking a hint from the location, we also found a similar video posted on Instagram from October 31, 2018. We can see the same setup as in the viral video, and a man moving the mannequin with a stick.
The Instagram handle @galaxychimelong also posted other videos and photos from the theme park tagging the location as "Chimelong Ocean Kingdom".
In another video posted on Facebook on October 17, 2018, from Chimelong Ocean Kingdom, we can see the tourists interacting with the mannequin by moving the stick. This shows that it is a setup at the theme park for the Halloween party.
This can be seen from the 42 seconds timestamp.
Additionally, on searching with the keywords "Halloween party at Chimelong Ocean Kingdom" we found a YouTube vlog from October 2018, which has visuals from the theme park that match visuals in the viral video. This can be seen below
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