What was claimed
A video shows a large fire in Belfast.
Our verdict
False. The footage does not show Belfast or the ongoing unrest there. It actually shows the aftermath of gas pipeline explosions in Russia on 9 June.
Video of Russian gas explosion falsely claimed to show Belfast unrest
A video of a large fire is circulating on social media with false claims it depicts recent disorder in Belfast.
It comes after a second night of rioting took place in the city, as part of ongoing disorder since Tuesday which has seen buildings and vehicles set on fire, following a serious knife attack in north Belfast on Monday night.
But the video actually shows the aftermath of a gas pipeline explosion in Russia that happened on 9 June.
The clip has been shared thousands of times on X with a caption saying: “The Irish are ready to burn the entire city of Belfast down to the ground”.
The clip shows a residential neighbourhood with a large fire burning in the distance. Audio on the video features people chanting “send them home”.
But while there are lots of pieces of genuine footage of the unrest in Belfast, this video is not one of them.
The same clip was shared as part of a longer, high quality video on Telegram without the audio of people chanting, with a caption (translated from Russian to English) which located the fire in Dagestan. Other footage from similar angles also shows the large fire.
According to media reports, the three explosions and the resulting fire engulfed a gas distribution centre, but no injuries were reported.
A still image of the Russian video was also used as the preview image for a piece about the disorder in Belfast by Sky News Australia. After we contacted the channel, the page was taken down.
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What happened in Belfast?
A 30-year-old man, Hadi Alodid, appeared in court on Wednesday charged with attempted murder and other offences over a knife attack that caused serious injuries to the victim, Stephen Ogilvie.
We’ve previously written about another video wrongly presenting old footage with claims it depicted recent scenes in Belfast.
Misinformation can spread quickly during a crisis, so it’s important to consider whether something you see online comes from a verifiable and trustworthy source before you share it. Our Full Fact toolkit contains tips to help you do this.
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as false because this is not footage of recent disorder in Belfast, but of a fire following gas pipeline explosions in Russia.