A user from South Africa shared a 12-second video showing flames shooting from a truck along a highway before it explodes.
Social media users also posted the clip with the same claim on TikTok And Facebookwhere it was viewed 84,000 times.
Northern South Africa Limpopo region has been the site of several fatal traffic accidents, including a fiery clash in September 2023 in which 20 people died (archived here And here).
But the images show an explosion in northern Brazil, not South Africa.
Explosion in Brazil
Using a reverse image searchAFP Fact Check found several news reports about a truck explosion in Brazil on July 4, 2024, with the same video used in the fake post (archived here And here).
“Six people injured in tanker explosion in Para; watch the exact moment,” reads the headline of a CNN Brazil article accompanying the footage.
Para is a state in Northern Brazil (archived here).
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The same traffic cone, highway markings and truck can be seen in the CNN Brazil video.
According to the article, the victims injured in the explosion were taken to hospital.
SBT Brazil, a local television channel news programreported that several journalists were injured in the explosion (archived here).
“SBT team injured in tanker explosion in Para,” reads the headline in Portuguese.
SBT Brazil also shared a similar video of the explosion taken from another angle (archived here).
SBT Brazil reported that the explosion occurred on a highway between Paragominas and Ulianópolis, two cities in the state of Para.
AFP correspondents in Brazil confirmed the incident, saying the explosion occurred on the BR-010 highway between the two cities.
Furthermore, there have been no recent reports in the South African media of a roadside explosion in Limpopo in July 2024.
AFP Fact Check has contacted South African authorities for comment.
