India’s creaking rail network has seen a string of disasters over the years but dramatic footage of a train pile-up was not filmed in the country’s southern Chennai megacity in December 2024, contrary to rumours on Facebook and Instagram. The incident described in the posts was made-up, Indian authorities told AFP, and the video in fact showed a deadly crash in Chile in June 2024.<\/h3>\n
“Vande Bharat train met with accident,” read a Hindi-language\u00a0Facebook post<\/a> that shared the video on January 1, referring to the state-operated multi-city rail service.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The footage shows a\u00a0dramatic train pile-up, with one carriage wedged atop another compartment.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Hindi text overlaid on the clip says: “Vande Bharat Express met with an accident in Chennai on December 29, 2024, at 2 AM.”<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Screenshot of the false post taken on January 5, 2025<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n The video made the rounds in similar posts on\u00a0Instagram<\/a> and\u00a0Facebook<\/a>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n India has one of the world’s largest rail networks and has seen several disasters<\/a>\u00a0over the years (archived link<\/a>).<\/p>\n The worst occurred in 1981 when a train derailed while crossing a bridge in Bihar state, killing an estimated 800 people.<\/p>\n Nearly 300 people were killed in a three-train collision in Odisha state in June 2023, when a packed passenger train was mistakenly diverted onto a loop line and slammed into a stationary goods train loaded with iron ore.<\/p>\n The circulating posts, however, were baseless according to India’s rail authority.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n “The Vande Bharat train has never met with an accident in Chennai,” a <\/span><\/span><\/span>spokesman for Southern Railway told AFP on January 15. “<\/span><\/span><\/span>This is completely false news.”<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n A reverse image search of the video on Google found similar footage in a report about a train collision in Chile.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n AFP posted<\/a> the clip on June 20 in a YouTube video titled: “Railway collision in Chile kills two people” (archived link<\/a>).<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Below is a screenshot comparison of the video shared in false social media posts (left) and AFP’s video (right).\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\nChile disaster<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n