Old, Unrelated Clip Shared as Visuals From Key Bridge Collapse in Baltimore, US

The could be traced back to at least October 2022 and shows an explosion on a bridge in Crimea.

Fact-Check | The video is old and unrelated to the collapse of the bridge in Baltimore. 

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

After the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed in United States' Baltimore, a video is now going viral claiming that it shows visuals from the tragic incident.

What have users said?: Those sharing the video have uploaded with a caption that said, "Alternate angle on Francis Scott key bridge shows a large explosion."

An archive of the post can be found here.

The video had garnered over a million views on the platform, when this report was being written. Archives of similar posts can be viewed here, here, and here.

Are these claims true?: Neither is the video recent nor is it related to the bridge's collapse in Baltimore. It has been online at least since October 2022 and shows an explosion on a bridge in Crimea.

How did we find that out?: We performed a Google Lens search and came across the same visuals uploaded on a verified YouTube channel named 'Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty'.

• The video was shared on 8 October 2022 and was titled, "Blast Disables Traffic Over Bridge From Russia To Crimea."

• Its description mentioned a blast hit a section of the dual road-and rail Crimea Bridge, which caused a part of the bridge to collapse into the sea.

News reports: A report published in Associated Press said that a portion of the bridge collapsed due to an explosion.

• This bridge connected Russia to the Crimean Peninsula, which reportedly served as an important supply artery for Kremlin's war effort in the southern Ukraine.

• The explosion resulted in the death of three people. It mentioned that nobody had immediately claimed responsibility for the explosion.

The report was published on 9 October 2022.

• The Guardian, too, had published similar visuals on their official YouTube channel in October 2022.

What happened in Baltimore?: The bridge in Baltimore Harbor collapsed on 26 March after a large cargo ship rammed into the structure, Reuters reported.

• This contradicted the viral post which claimed that an explosion took place.

• About six workers were missing and now are presumed dead as a result of the collapse.

• The search operations were suspended about 18 hours after the accident.

Conclusion: It is clear that the video showing a bridge collapsing due to an explosion is old and unrelated to the recent incident in Baltimore, United States.

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