Old Pakistan airport fire clip misrepresented as recent
Footage of a fire in Pakistan’s busy Lahore airport in May 2024 has been falsely shared online as a recent incident allegedly caused by troops installing a missile system. Authorities in the South Asian nation said claims of a recent blaze are untrue.
“Allama Iqbal International Airport Lahore, Pakistan is burning after a missile battery of Air Defence System exploded during installation,” reads a Facebook post on April 26, 2025.
“All Services have been suspended at Lahore airport & Pakistan Army has taken control,” it went on to say, adding “14 Pakistani soldiers” died in the incident.
It also shares a video showing a building filled with smoke as a crowd looks on, and Bengali-language text that largely repeats the false claim.
Screenshot of the false Facebook post, captured on June 3, 2025
The claim surfaced days after gunmen killed 26 people in an attack on tourists in Pahalgam in India-administered Kashmir on April 22, which New Delhi blames on its neighbour. Islamabad denies the charge (archived link).
Four days of tense fighting broke out between the nuclear-armed foes in May — claiming over 70 lives on both sides — before they agreed to a US-brokered ceasefire (archived link).
The false post was shared elsewhere on Facebook, with comments indicating some users believed the claim to be true.
A comment reads, “This is only for the airport now, soon it will be for the whole of Pakistan.”
“Very well done, let it spread all over Pakistan now,” reads another comment.
But a reverse image search on Google using keyframes shows the video was uploaded to YouTube on May 9, 2024 (archived link).
“Massive fire at Lahore Airport,” the video’s caption reads. “Investigation suggests that a short circuit was the cause of the fire.”
Screenshot comparison of the false post (L) and the YouTube video
Further searches found the columns of smoke next to a sign in the false clip can also be seen at the 14th-second mark in a video report on the fire that Pakistani outlet Aaj TV published on the same day (archived link).
Screenshot comparison of the false video (L) and the Aaj TV report with the same columns of smoke highlighted by AFP
Other Pakistani media outlets also reported on the fire at the time, saying a short circuit was to blame for the blaze (archived here and here).
The state-owned Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) reported on April 26, 2025 that the Pakistan Airports Authority said there had been no incident of fire, and dismissed the claim as “baseless, false and misleading” (archived link).
AFP has debunked misinformation spreading following the Kashmir attack here and here.
