A video showing a man with a headscarf being hastily escorted by guards after gunshots are heard is being shared on social media with a claim that it shows the Defence Minister of Saudi Arabia at the Chinese Embassy on the occasion of the Chinese New Year.
The video also shows the guards rushing the man into the vehicle for his safety.
However, the video dates back to December 2019 when the Emiri Guards of Kuwait conducted a mock military exercise during the fifth Gulf Defence and Aerospace Exhibition.
The Chinese New Year was celebrated on 1 February 2022.
CLAIM
The post was shared with a claim suggesting that this incident happened at the Chinese Embassy when Defense Minister of Saudi Arabia arrived there.
An archived version of the post can be seen here.
Similar claims can be seen here and here.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
We divided the video into multiple keyframes and performed a reverse image search on some of them and this led us to a video post on Facebook.
This video was post by an Arabian news channel, Clock News Agency on 13 December 2019.
The caption of the post read in Arabic, “Military exercise for personal guards in the State of Kuwait.”
Taking a cue, we looked for official account of the Kuwait army and found a video of the same event on their account.
This video was uploaded on 16 December 2019.
The caption of the video read in Arabic, “A part of the display of the Prince Guard Corps that was carried out during the fifth Gulf Defence and Aviation Exhibition, which was held from 10 to 12 December 2019 in the Exhibition grounds is honoured.”
https://www.instagram.com/kuwaitarmyghq/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=3418b908-3273-49d6-a3ed-82fe5adf1e8a&ig_mid=2BF5E0F8-D21D-45C3-BA65-39F20029ED8A
We found similarities on comparing the video by Kuwait army to the viral video.
The location matches the viral video.
Clearly, an old video of a mock drill by Kuwait army was falsely shared as a real incident showing Saudi Arabia’s Minister at the Chinese Embassy.
(With inputs from American Bazaar)
(The Quint)
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