Video of Man Praying in Middle of Road is From Istanbul, Not London

A video of a man praying in the middle of the road in Istanbul was falsely claimed to be from London.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

A video of a man praying in the middle of a road is being shared on social media to claim that incident took place in London, United Kingdom.

However, we found that the video is from Istanbul, Turkey, and it was also published by several Turkish media organisations on 19 September.

CLAIM

A part of the claim along with the video reads, "लंदन इस्लाम की चपेट में" (London in the grip of Islam). It further goes on to add that for ruling "half of the world, Britain is in the grip of Islam today and that's because they were lenient towards the religion."

You can view the archived version here.

(Photo: Facebook/ Screenshot)

Several social media users shared the video with a similar claim on Facebook and Twitter and the archived version of the posts can be viewed here, here, and here.

WHAT WE FOUND

On carefully looking at the video, we noticed 'TET 57' written on a yellow-coloured taxi.

One can see'TET 57' written on a taxi seen in the viral video.

(Photo: Facebook/ Screenshot)

We then searched on Google and came across an article that reported about an incident from Istanbul, Turkey and carried the photo of a similar taxi.

Taking a cue from here, we ran a keyword search on Google using Turkish words 'Istanbul yolunda namaz kılan adamın videosu' (video of man praying namaz on road Istanbul) and came across a video uploaded by Turkey-based media outlet T24 Haber on Dailymotion.

The description along with the video mentioned that the visuals are from the E-5 highway in Istanbul wherein a person was seen praying on the road, ignoring the movement of vehicles.

Since the visuals uploaded by T24 Haber were comparatively clearer, we were able to identify billboards such as 'Flo' and 'Medical Park.'

'Flo' and 'Medical Park' can be seen in the visuals.

(Photo: Dailymotion/ Screenshot)

With the help of the aforementioned clues, we found that the building seen in the video is Metroport mall, located on E-5 highway.

A comparison of the viral video and the building located in Istanbul, as viewed on Google Earth, showed several similar elements.

Left: Viral video. Right: Istanbul location.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

Here's the live street view of the said location in Istanbul.

Further, another Turkish media outlet Ensonhaber carried the viral visuals in an article published on 19 September and mentioned that the man attracted the attention of several commuters who warned him while he was praying.

Evidently, a video of a man praying in the middle of the road in Istanbul was falsely claimed to be from London.

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