Fact-Check: Old, Unrelated Visuals Viral as One from New Delhi's Red Fort Blast

Both the visuals are unrelated to, and predate the Red Fort blast which took place in Delhi on 10 November.

Fact-Check: These visuals are old and unrelated to the recent Delhi blast.

(Source: The Quint)

Two images showing thick plumes of smoke billowing from burning vehicles are circulating on social media, with several users claiming they are linked to the 10 November blast near Delhi’s Red Fort.

Who shared it?: News outlets such as Wion News, AsiaNet Bangla, Zee News Tamil and AIR News Mumbai's X page shared these visuals as one from Red Fort.

An archive of the post can be found here. 

(Source: Instagram) 

An archive of the post can be found here. 

(Source: Instagram) 

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

Is the claim true?: No, the claim is false. These visuals are unrelated to the Red Fort blast.

• The first image is from April 2025, when a moving car caught fire on the Khanpur-Chirag Delhi route.

• The second image is from Haret Hreik in Beirut from 2014.

What we found: We checked the two visuals separately and found the following.

Image 1: At first, we ran a Google reverse image search on the image and were led to a report by ETV Bharat from 3 April 2025.

• The report also featured the same visual of the burning vehicle as the viral posts. It stated that a car caught fire and later exploded on a road in Delhi.

• The driver managed to escape by jumping out in time. It further mentioned that the incident occurred in the Delhi's Khanpur area, located about 19.2 kilometres from the Red Fort.

• The initial investigation noted that the car caught fire due to a short circuit.

Here is a preview of the report.

(Source: ETV Bharat) 

• A journalist named Tasneem Haider (as per their Instagram bio) also, shared a video showing the car which caught fire.

Here is a preview of their post.

(Source: Instagram) 

Image 2: Team WebQoof ran another Google reverse image search on the image and were led to a report by The Guardian from 2 January 2014.

• It noted that a a deadly car bomb exploded near a Hezbollah security zone in the southern part of Lebanon's capital Beirut.

• The car bomb took place in the Haret Hreik district of the suburb of Dahiyeh, which has long been an operations hub for Hezbollah. The organisation had said none of its people or sites had been affected.

• The Guardian had credited the AFP for the image hence, we looked for it on its archives.

• AFP noted, "Flames rise from burning cars at the site of a car bomb that targeted Beirut's southern suburb of Haret Hreik on 2 January 2 2014. A large car bomb killed five people and wounded at least 20 in south Beirut, a health ministry source told AFP." (sic.)

Here is a preview of the post. 

(Source: AFP/Screenshot) 

Conclusion: Both the visuals are old and unrelated to the recent car blast near Red Fort.

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