A video has been viewed tens of thousands of times in Facebook posts that claim it shows the Ram temple in the Indian city of Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh collapsing into a river. The claim is false; the video was filmed in West Bengal and has circulated in news reports about a temple that eroded into a river.
“Where Ram temple has been built in place of Babri mosque. That Ram temple is mixing with water today,” reads a Bengali-language Facebook post shared on November 2.
The video — viewed more than 35,000 times — shows a building collapsing into a river, while people in the background are heard screaming.
A temple for the Hindu god Ram is under construction in Ayodha in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.
The site has become a symbol of India’s Hindu-Muslim divide as a 16th century mosque called Babri used to sit on the same patch of land.
In 1992, tens of thousands of Hindus tore down the mosque to pave the way for a temple.
Screenshot of the misleading post taken on November 18, 2021The same video was shared here and here in similar Facebook posts.
However, the claim is false.
Reverse image searches of the video’s keyframes found similar footage showing the same event posted on YouTube on October 25, 2019.
The YouTube video is titled: “A Shiva Temple has been destroyed today” and states that the temple is located in Mathurapur town in Malda district in West Bengal.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the video in the misleading posts (left) and YouTube video (right), with the corresponding features highlighted.
A similar video of the incident was aired by Indian media organisation News 18 on October 25, 2019.
“Erosion in a river in Malda, the temple sank in the riverbed”, the Bengali report reads.
The location of the incident can be found here on Google Street View.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the video in the misleading posts (left) and a Google Street View of the temple’s location in Mathurapur (right).
Screenshot comparison of the video in the misleading posts (L) and a Google Street View of the temple’s location in Mathurapur (R)