A video is being widely shared on social media in which a Christmas tree inside a mall is seen on fire.
The video is shared with a caption claiming that the incident happened in the United Kingdom, where Muslims burnt down a Christmas tree.
A social media user shared the video with a caption that reads, “Muslims in the UK burned a Christmas Tree. Should they deserve the same treatment on Eid?”
SouthCheck found that the claim is false. The viral video is from China, and the tree was burnt by accident. There was no communal angle to the incident.
On a Google reverse image search, we found that the same video was shared by a Facebook page, Royal News English, on December 26, 2024.
The caption read, “German Chancellor visits Christmas market attack site in Magdeburg. Short circuit triggers fire, setting a Christmas tree ablaze in China.”
Using this information, we searched with relevant keywords and found that the incident was also reported by The Mirror on December 31, 2024. According to the report, a Christmas tree caught fire in an outdoor area of a shopping centre in Chengdu, China.
The incident was also reported by the Chinese website Oriental Daily on December 29, 2024.
According to the report, the shopping mall discovered through surveillance footage that a passerby had apparently thrown a cigarette butt into the Christmas tree. Since the Christmas tree decorations were mostly made of flammable materials such as cotton wool, the fire started immediately.
Hence, we can ascertain that the viral claim is false.
