The viral video is from Sri Lankan coast
A video of a burning cargo ship in the sea went viral on social media with claims that it is an American cargo ship targeted near Yemen. Propagandist Ali Sohrab shared the video on X and wrote, An American cargo ship near Yemen!
Another X handler named Shadab Liyakat shared the video and wrote, An American cargo ship was targeted near the Yemeni Sahil.
X handle MorrisNews shared the viral video and wrote, American cargo ship hit by missle attacks in the Red Sea. Houthis rebels in Yemen are the culprits. This is a major escalation.
Simon Ateba shared the video and wrote, GLOBAL WAR: US Cargo Ship Hit by Missile off Yemeni Coast.
X handle Truth Over Media also shared the viral video and wrote, U.S Cargo ship hit by a missile. Our support for Israel is making us a target in the Red Sea.
During our investigation, our initial step involved conducting a reverse video search on the viral footage to ascertain its authenticity. During this process, a significant discovery emerged as we stumbled upon a video featured on the Official YouTube channel of Insider News. This particular video, uploaded on June 5, 2021, bore the title “Ship Fire Turns Into Environmental Disaster In Sri Lanka.” To our intrigue, the visuals showcased in this video mirrored those of the widely circulated burning cargo ship from the viral video. However, according to Insider News, this video highlights a container ship fire off the coast of Sri Lanka, posing a grave threat to marine life as more than 350 metric tons of oil sink to the bottom of the Indian Ocean.
Subsequently, our investigation led us to another YouTube video, this time on the official channel of BBC News. The video, uploaded on May 25, 2021, bore the title “Sri Lanka navy rescue crew following chemical fire on cargo ship.” Remarkably, the visuals depicted in this video also mirrored those circulating in the viral video. However, according to BBC News, this video is from Sri Lanka. Apart from this, BBC News writes, The crew of a container ship off the coast of Sri Lanka had to be evacuated after a chemical fire caused an explosion. Two sailors from the Singaporean X-Press Pearl were taken to hospital with injuries.
After this, we did keyword research with the relevant keywords and came across a report by The Independent published on May 25, 2021. Astonishingly, the visuals featured in this report aligned seamlessly with the burning cargo ship depicted in the viral video. According to this report, a catastrophic explosion rocked a ship anchored near Sri Lanka’s capital, where a persistent fire had been raging for several days. This alarming situation necessitated the urgent evacuation of the ship’s crew. The container vessel, MV X-Press Pearl, found itself anchored approximately 9.5 nautical miles (18 kilometres) northwest of Colombo, awaiting entry into its port when the intense fire erupted.
The report pointed to a probable cause for the disaster, attributing it to chemicals being transported on the Singapore-flagged ship. Shockingly, the vessel was laden with 1,486 containers, including a substantial 25 tons of nitric acid and various other chemicals loaded at the port of Hazira, India, on May 15.
Hence, all these points prove that the burning cargo ship in the viral video is not American but a Singaporean-registered MV X-Press Pearl cargo ship that was sailing from India’s Gujarat to Colombo when it caught fire in May 2021 near the Sri Lankan coast.
| Claim | The cargo ship that is on fire is an American cargo ship that was targeted near Yemen |
| Claimed by | Ali Sohrab, Shadab Liyakat, Simon Ateba etc |
| Fact Check | Misleading |
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