A video showing a church burning in France is viral with the claim that the church was set ablaze by BJP supporters in Manipur. BOOM found that the claims are false and the video is from Marne, France, where a 16th century church recently burned down.
The violence between the Kuki and Meitei community has grappled Manipur for more than 2 months now, leading to a death toll of over 140. The clip of the church burning is being shared in this context.
The 25-second clip shows flames coming out of the church before its steeple collapses. A caption on Twitter reads, "Manipur- Imphal. The violence does not stop. BJP workers burnt the 300-year-old St Joseph's church. Manipur has been burning for 74 days."
(Original text in Hindi: #मणिपुर सुग्नू इंफाल नही थम रही हिंसा आगजनी भाजपा समर्थक उग्रवादियो ने 300 साल से ज्यादा पुरानी St. Joseph's चर्च जलाई 74 दिनो से मणिपुर जल रहा है)
Click here to view the tweet and here for an archive.
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the video is from a church in Drosnay, Marne, located in France and the incident took place on July 7, 2023.
A reverse image search of some keyframes from the video led us to several tweets about a church fire in Drosnay that carried visuals similar to the viral video (see here and here).
Taking a cue from this, we looked for French reports about the incident and found one published by France 3 on July 7, 2023. The feature image of this story matched the visuals from the viral video. According to the report, the historical timber-framed church, L’église Notre-Dame-de Drosnay in Marne caught fire and collapsed shortly after. The cause of the fire was not known.
Another report by French news outlet BFM TV mentioned that 41 firefighters reached the scene to help douse the fire, and an official statement informed that 90% of the roof's surface had collapsed. Mayor Emmanuel Le Roy informed that the church was listed as a historical monument since 1982 and predated to at least the 15th or 16th century.
According to a press release by the prefecture of Marne, an investigation into the cause of the fire was underway and testimonies were being gathered for the same.
Nicolas Milovanovic, the curator at the Louvre Museum in Paris also tweeted about the fire and expressed his sadness over the "irreparable loss".