Video shows rescue exercise, not train accident in western India

Amid increasing concern about safety on the Indian rail network in recent years, a clip was shared with a false claim that it shows the aftermath of a train crash. A spokesperson for the Indian railway authority has confirmed to AFP that the video shows a rescue exercise in the Rajasthan state in western India in November. Local media have also reported on the drill, along with videos that show the same scene.

“Two trains collided near Bikaner Lalgarh railway station. Rescue operations are underway!! The unfortunate citizens don’t even know that they have embarked on the last journey of their life,” read the Hindi-language caption of a post on X shared on November 14, 2024.

The 90-second clip shows a train carriage piled up on another compartment, as rescuers carry people away from the scene on stretchers.

A person can be heard speaking in Hindi near the end of the video: “Accident due to collision of two trains near Lalgarh station. Many people are reported to be injured. Rescue operations are underway.”

The post has been viewed more than 538,000 times.

Lalgarh is a railway station located in the Bikaner district of Rajasthan state (archived link).

Screenshot of the false post, taken on November 19, 2024

The false claim surfaced amid ongoing concerns over the safety of India’s ageing railway system. Local media reported that 18 train accidents were recorded between April and August 2024, with poor track maintenance and outdated infrastructure often to blame (archived link).

In one of India’s deadliest crashes in recent decades, nearly 300 people were killed in June 2023 when a passenger train was mistakenly diverted onto a loop line and crashed into a stationary goods train before the derailed compartments struck the carriages of another train passing in the opposite direction.

Experts told AFP that the June 2023 accident showed despite efforts to improve its infrastructure, India’s complex and often antiquated railway system still has far to go (archived link).

The clip was shared with similar claims elsewhere on Facebook here and here, and on X here.

Comments by users suggested that they believed the claim to be genuine.

“Such a big accident has happened in the country and the railway minister and the prime minister are busy in election campaigning,” one user commented.

“The life of a poor man has no value in this country, the railway minister should resign,” wrote another user.

But the video shows a train rescue exercise, not an actual accident.

Rescue drill

A keyword search on Google found a longer version of the video uploaded on YouTube by a local media outlet 24 News Rajasthan on November 14, 2024 (archived link).

The Hindi-language headline read: “Horrific train collision at Bikaner railway station! Mock drill.”

The clip’s description said it shows an exercise at Lalgarh Railway Station in Bikaner. “The incident is part of the railway authority’s rescue drill, through which safety operations are tested in case of emergency,” it went on to say.

Below is a screenshot comparison of the clip shared in the false posts (left) and the video uploaded on YouTube (right):

Other Indian news outlets also reported on the drill (archived link).

Vinod Kumar Beniwal, a spokesperson for the government-owned North Western Railways, confirmed the video shows an exercise.

“The video is being shared with a false claim. Indian Railways conducts such mock drills from time to time to deal with train accidents,” Beniwal told AFP on November 18.

North Western Railways also shared a picture showing the scene in the false video in a post on November 15, 2024 on its official X account, saying rescuers simulated responding to an accident where 47 people were injured (archived link).

AFP has not found credible media reports of recent train accidents in Rajasthan.

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