Nepal Fire Footage Shared as Demra Incident

A video of a fire has recently circulated on social media, claiming it shows a devastating blaze in Demra, Dhaka. But verification confirmed that the video came from Nepal. It shows a scene of arson at the Area Police Office, Banepa, during the Gen-Z movement this year. The incident has no link to Bangladesh.

The video has been shared on multiple Facebook pages, profiles, and groups (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8) with the same claim since September 14. The 1:30-minute clip shows a building in flames, sparks, and black smoke filling the air. Shouts of panic ring out, with many people gathered outside. Some jump from the building in desperate attempts to survive. Below, others hold out bedsheets to rescue those trapped inside.

The same video spread further across YouTube (1, 2, 3), Instagram (1, 2, 3), and Threads (1, 2, 3, 4) with the same claim of a fire in Demra.

A search using different keyframes of the video led to a 1:50-minute video on the social media platform TikTok, uploaded on September 9. Its caption reads: “Banepa Police Station 😂 #banepa #police #genz.” The first one and a half minutes of this fully matched the viral video that has been spread with false claims.

By searching for relevant keywords from the TikTok video’s description, Dismislab identified several videos (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7) showing different footage of the same location. The structure seen burning in the footage closely resembles the one claimed to be located in Nepal in the TikTok video. In one video, the building’s front displayed text in Nepali. When this text was extracted and translated using Google Translate, it read: “Area Police Office Banepa.”

Further verifications through a Google Maps search for “Area Police Office Banepa” identified a police station in Nepal with the same name. The police station building shown in the video shared as being from Demra, Dhaka, is an exact match with the one featured in another video on TikTok that claims it is from Nepal. Verification indicates that the footage was taken from the backside of the police station. The off-white exterior of the building and the sky-blue cornice are consistent with the Google Maps imagery, while the water tank and antenna on the roof also appear identical.

Additionally, Nepali online portals (1, 2) reported that protesters in the Gen-Z movement attacked the Banepa Municipality Office and set fire to the police station.

So, the video circulating with claims that the fire incident is from Demra, Bangladesh, is entirely false.