For nearly two weeks, starting June 13, tensions escalated into full-blown conflict between Iran and Israel. Then, on June 21, the situation intensified when the US carried out airstrikes on three nuclear sites in Iran, prompting Iran to retaliate by firing missiles at a US military base in Qatar. A few days later, the three nations agreed to a ceasefire. Amidst all this turmoil, Lighthouse Journalism found one video being shared across social media platforms.
The video showing a fire at a residential area was claimed to be from Tel Aviv in Israel. During the investigation, we found that the video was old and from the UK. This was not related to the Iran and Israel conflict.
Claim:
Facebook user मोहम्मद हुसेन शेख shared the video on his profile with a misleading claim.
Other users were also sharing the same video with a similar claim.
Investigation:
We started the probe by uploading the video in the InVid tool and extracting keyframes from the video. We then ran a reverse image search on these keyframes.
We found one keyframe in an article on the UKNIP website.
Published in May 2025, the report stated, two teenagers have been arrested on suspicion of arson following a major fire that tore through an abandoned college building in Coventry.
We then ran a Google keyword search to find more news reports regarding the same incident.
The report on The Sun had carried the video of the incident too.
Uploaded on 30 April, 2025, the report stated, “The blaze at Henley College in Coventry broke out at around 7.15 pm last night, with 75 firefighters tackling the inferno at its peak.”
We also got pictures of Henley College in Coventry on Google and also located the college on Street View.
Conclusion: Old video of fire at an abandoned college in the UK’s Coventry being shared as recent, linking it to the Iran-Israel conflict. The viral claim is misleading.
