A footage showing a man speaking in front of the camera, with an array of body bags behind him, is circulating on social media. In the video, which contains a logo of the news channel News 24, the man is heard highlighting in Hindi the direness of the situation, and the inadequate response by the Indian government to get stranded citizens out of Ukraine. As he speaks, one of the bodies behind him start moving. This video is being circulated with the claim that it shows a staged coverage of India's evacuation efforts of its citizens from the war.
BOOM found this claim to be false; the video shows the coverage of a recent climate change protest in Vienna, where 49 protesters were laying in body bags to show how many people would die due to climate change everyday in Austria. The Hindi audio in the clip has been mischievously overlaid on top of the original audio of the footage, which is in German, and the logo of News 24 has been digitally doctored into the clip.
We found this video circulating on Facebook, where the man is head saying the following in Hindi:
"We have been here for three days. For three days the Indian embassy said they'll get us out. Every five minutes there is a bomb blast here. Yesterday all night there were bomb blasts, and it is going on even now. We've been telling the Indian embassy, but there's no one who's even come forward to talk to us. Whoever comes says get out at your own risk."
This footage was shared with the following caption: "The channel News 24 of Mr. Pappu Pager's dear Raju Shukla is showing...how pathetic is the condition of Indian students in Ukraine!! The dead bodies are lying covered behind!! But then unfortunately a dead person started itching!! He removed his covered sheet in this affair!! Due to this mistake his red cap was also visible!! But what does it mean? Hey the dead can't itch? Modiji resign!! I got this video from a WhatsApp group!! Thought I'd let you know about it too!! "
Original caption: "श्रीमान पप्पू पेजर के अतिप्रिय राजू शुक्ला का चेनल News 24 दिखा रहा है...कि यूक्रेन में भारतीय छात्रों की स्थिति कितनी दयनीय है!! पीछे लाशें ढकी हुई बिछी पड़ी हैं!!लेकिन तभी दुर्भाग्य से एक मुर्दे को खुजली होने लगी!! वो इस चक्कर में अपनी ढकी हुई चादर हटा बैठा!!इसी गलती से उसकी लाल टोपी भी दिखाई दे गई!! लेकिन इसका क्या मतलब? अरे मुर्दे को खुजली नहीं हो सकती क्या?? मोदीजी इस्तीफ़ा दो!!🤣🤣🤣 मेरे पास ये वीडियो एक व्हाट्सअप ग्रुप से आया!!सोचा आपको भी इससे अवगत करा दूँ!!"
Click here to view the post on Facebook.
The same video was shared with a similar claim by another user on Facebook, getting nearly 10,000 views in less than a day.
Fact-Check
The video going viral is entirely unrelated to the conflict in Ukraine, and shows a news reporting on a climate change protest that happened in Vienna last month.
49 protesters had arranged themselves in body bag to show the number of people who may die from climate change everyday in Austria.
The exact same video had recently gone viral with yet another claim - that it shows Ukrainian media staging a news coverage to exaggerate the direness of the situation in the country.
Here is an excerpt from our previous fact-check, describing how we confirmed the context behind the video:
"We noticed the text 'Wien: Demo Gegen Klimapolitik' and the reporter speaking to the camera identified as Marvin Bergauer - reporter OE24.TV and using the same keywords we ran a search and found the original on YouTube. The video was uploaded by the verified handle of OE24.TV on February 4, 2022 with the same text seen on the screen which translates to - Vienna: Demo against climate policy.
We heard the video using translated subtitles and found that the reporter is saying that 49 protesters are laying on the ground in body bags to show the number of people who could die everyday in Austria because of climate changes."
Here is the original video, uploaded by news channel OE24.
It does not show anyone speaking in Hindi, thus suggesting that the Hindi audio has been edited into the video to disinform.
We were also unable to find any such reporting done by news channel News 24.
