Fact Check: Old Video From Istanbul Shared as Recent Blast on Taksim Square
The suicide bombing was the fourth such attack in 2016, which claimed five lives and left 36 people injured.
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An old CCTV footage of an explosion on a street is going viral on the internet with a claim that it is recent and shows the bombing in Taksim Square, Istanbul, that took place on Sunday, 13 November.
What is the video about? : The 27-second clip shows a suicide bomber detonating an explosive in the middle of the streets.
What does the claim say? : Social media users have shared this video claiming that the footage is from the recent explosion that took place in Istanbul.
(Note: The video contains some distressing visuals. Viewers' discretion is advised.)
What is the truth? : The video is six years old and shows CCTV footage of a suicide bombing at Istiklal Street in Istanbul from 19 March 2016.
How did we find the truth? : At first, we noticed the date stamp written on top of the frame towards the end of the video.
The date stamp showed the footage is from 2016.
(Source: Viral video/Facebook/Altered by The Quint)
Using a Google Chrome extension, InVID, we extracted the keyframes of the video and performed a reverse image search on them.
On Tineye, we found an article published on the website of the Daily Express, a British daily.
It was published on 19 March 2016 with the headline, "WATCH: Woman waves goodbye to friends moments before Istanbul suicide bomber blows up".
It also carried a picture which was similar to one of the frames of the viral video.
On comparing both the images, we found they are from the same incident.
(Source: Daily Express website/Screenshot/Altered by The Quint)
The article further mentioned that five people were killed in the incident, and 36 were injured.
A similar report was also published by The Independent.
Both reports mentioned that Turkish officials suspected the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) or the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) for the attack.
This was the fourth such terror attack that happened in 2016.
What happened in Istanbul recently? : On Sunday, 13 November, one of the busiest shopping streets in Istanbul witnessed a bombing in which six people were killed. The police arrested a woman in her alleged connection with the attacks in an overnight raid.
Conclusion: Evidently, a video from 2016 showing a suicide bombing in Istanbul is being shared as recent.
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