Claim: A video shows the aftermath of an assassination attempt on Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Fact: The video is from 16 March 2024 when a car caught fire due to an accident on King Salman Road, Riyadh.
On 7 May 2024, X (formerly Twitter) user SANTINO (@MichaelSCollura) posted a video claiming that it shows the aftermath of an assassination attempt on the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, and other officials in Riyadh.
The post states,
“HAPPENING NOW
Arab Saudi sources are reporting an assassination attempt against Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
Unconfirmed Reports tonight that a Heavily-Armed Security Convoy carrying the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman and several other High-Ranking Officials was Attacked earlier tonight within the Capital of Riyadh, in what appears to have been an Assassination OANDA NEWS”
The video shows a car engulfed in flames with police presence in the area.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check found the claim to be false. A reverse image search led us to an X post by Saudi journalist @halgawi which states that the incident is two-months old when a car caught fire due to an accident. The text juxtaposed on the video reads, “حريق طريق الملك سلمان [King Salman Road fire]. The post also stated that the video was first posted on 16 March 2024, as evidenced by a tweet by @SaudiDCD, linked in the post.
In this tweet, the official X account of The General Directorate of Saudi Civil Defense, @SaudiDCD, had reported the accident on 16 March 2024, along with a photo of a fireman hosing down a charred vehicle. The neon sign on the building visible in the background of this photo, although blurred, appears similar to the one on the building featured in the viral video. According to this post, the Riyadh Civil Defense extinguished a fire in two vehicles following a traffic accident, with no reported injuries.
We also found that Lead Stories, also a signatory of the International Fact-Checking Network, investigated the viral video and concluded that it “shows a car accident in Riyadh”. According to this article, they found a clearer version of the video in question posted by X account @saudi_fight on 16 March, and identified an illuminated sign which says “Alkhunaizan”. They located the appliance chain store on King Salman Road, Riyadh, and confirmed the matching features of the storefront seen in both the viral video and the photo posted by the Saudi Civil Defence.
Moreover, Shayan Sardarizadeh (@Shayan86), a reporter who covers online misinformation for the BBC, said that the claim about an assassination attempt on the Saudi Crown Prince is baseless.
“A totally baseless claim about an assassination attempt on Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is going viral on X after being shared by fake osint accounts and well-known misinformation spreaders seeking engagement.
There’s zero evidence for the claim,” he posted on X.
Additionally, a keyword search on Google found no credible media reports of a recent attack on the life of Mohammed Bin Salman either. While there are no reliable reports of such an attack, we cannot confirm independently whether such an attempt on his life was made recently. However, Soch Fact Check can conclude that the viral video is two-months old and not related to an assassination attempt on the Crown Prince.
Virality:
The claim can be found here, here, here, here and here on X.
The post by @MichaelSCollura gained significant traction with 48,800 views, 36 reposts and 39 likes.
On Facebook, the video was posted here, here, here, here and here.
Conclusion: The viral video does not show the aftermath of an assassination attempt on Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. It was shared as early as March 2024, and depicts an incident from March 2024, involving a car catching fire after a traffic accident on King Salman Road in Riyadh.
Background image in cover photo: SaudiPressAgency
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