A collage of two images, one showing a pro-refugee rally in Belgium in 2015 while another showing firefighters trying to extinguish burning vehicles in a Paris suburb is being shared linking the former to the recent unrest in France.
In the first image, a large group of people can be seen holding a big banner welcoming refugees with the message, 'They are not dangerous, they are in danger!'.
France's President Emmanuel Macron on July 4 said that the country was past the peak of the rioting phase. France has been gripped by spiraling riots over the death of a teenager of Algerian descent on June 27 who was shot dead by the police for refusing to stop at a traffic stop.
Several old and unrelated images and videos are circulating online claiming to show scenes of rioting in France.
A Facebook user posted the collage captioning the widely shared rally photo as, "France in 2016."
Click here to view the post.
News18 Hindi's managing editor Amish Devgan too tweeted the viral photo falsely claiming that the picture is from France.
Click here to view the tweet.
Fact Check
BOOM ran a reverse image search on the photo and found the same picture in an article published by Belgium-based news outlet VRT NWS on September 27, 2015.
An excerpt from the article states: "Between 15,000 and 20,000 people have joined a march to support the refugees coming into Belgium. On a sunny afternoon in Brussels, they walked from the North Station to the Jubelpark to call refugees welcome, to demand better conditions for them in reception centres and to urge politicians to take measures against racism and xenophobia."
We also found photos from different angles of people carrying the same banner supporting refugees in Brussels, Belgium at that time.
Taking a cue, we searched with relevant keywords and found a video about the September 27, 2015, march that happened in Brussels on a Belgium-based citizen platform BelRefugees's YouTube channel. The video was uploaded on September 29, 2015, with a French caption that translates to, "THANK YOU for your strong solidarity - we were more than 20,000 to make our voices heard in solidarity with the refugees!"
We also noticed similar visuals showing the people carrying the same banner supporting refugees at 6 seconds timestamp in the video.
On the other hand, we found the other photo of firefighters standing in front of burning vehicles was clicked by a Reuters photographer Stephanie Lecocq on June 28, 2023 at Nanterre in Paris, France. The image is from the recent riots in the city.
The description of the photo on Reuters' website states, "Firefighters stand as they extinguish burning vehicles during clashes between protesters and police, after the death of Nahel, a 17-year-old teenager killed by a French police officer during a traffic stop, in Nanterre, Paris suburb, France, June 28, 2023."
