Old Video From France of Man Punching A Person During Protest Viral as Recent

This video dates back to 2016 and is unrelated to the recent protests witnessed in France.

Fact-check: An old video of violence at a protest in France is being shared as recent with a communal spin.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

A video showing a man punch someone while several people are kneeling on the ground during a protest is going viral on social media.

What's the claim?: The claim states that a 'black Muslim' got punched by a 'catholic person' for playing loud music and disturbing their prayers.

• It also stated that this happened recently in France.

Recent protests: France has been witnessing clashes between the public and the police after the death of Nahel, a 17-year-old teenager who was allegedly killed at the hands of the police for driving a car without a license.

An archive can be seen here.

(Archives of similar claims can be seen here and here.)

But the video is old: The video dates back to 2016 when a group of Catholic fundamentalists were protesting against the demolition of Saint Rita’s Church in Paris, France.

• The victim was punched several times before he fell on the ground.

• The reason for the attack was stated that the man got agitated as his group was disrupted by loud music.

How did we find out the truth?: We divided the video into multiple keyframes and performed a reverse image search with some relevant keywords.

• This led us to a reports from 20 August 2016 carrying this same video.

• The report by Metro stated that these people were protesting against the demolition of Saint Rita’s Church in Paris, France.

• It also stated that there is no clarity on whether any arrests have been made for this case.

• The same was reported by Daily Mail, The Irish Sun and Mirror.

The video is from 2016.

More about protests from 2016: Several locals were protesting against the demolition of Paris's St. Rita church.

• The church's owner, the Association of Catholic and Apostolic Chapels, had agreed to sell the land to a real estate developer who was planning to build an apartment building at the same location.

• As per the recent street view available on Google maps, St Rita still stands in Paris but entry is not permitted.

Conclusion: An old video of violence at a protest in France is being shared as recent with a communal spin.

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