Old video of terror attack falsely shared as recent incident of violence by 'Muslim refugees' in France

(Trigger Warning: This story contains descriptions of distressing visuals and mentions of sexual assault. Reader discretion is advised.)

Context

A disturbing video of bodies lying on the street with people running around in distress is circulating on social media with the claim that a recent attack by "Muslim refugees" left several "white people" dead in France. The video also includes the voiceover of a man who claims the attack by "Muslim refugees" was not reported in the news. A Twitter user shared the video with the caption: "You would never see this in the news. White people in France are being slaughtered and raped in droves by Muslim refugees. This is madness! There is going to have to be a time when white people are going to have to stand up, defend themselves and fight back!." This post (archived here) alone received over 157,200 and more than 1,800 at the time of publishing. 

However, the video is not of a recent attack in France but shows the aftermath of a truck ramming into a crowd in 2016. No incident of rape or sexual assault was reported in the 2016 attack. 

In fact

We noted that the claim originates from Bitchute, a platform known for spreading conspiracy theories. BitChute has made several other false claims that fact-checking organizations, including Logically Facts, have debunked. 

Using a Google reverse image search, we found that the same video was uploaded by The Indian Express on YouTube on July 18, 2016, with the title, "Nice Attack: The Aftermath."

CBS Evening News, which is part of the American CBS News network, had also shared the clip on YouTube as part of a video report on July 15, 2016. The description of the video report read, "A truck drove into a crowd in Nice, France, Thursday night during a celebration of Bastille Day. Local officials say dozens are dead and injured."

The evidence cited above shows that the video is old and was not recorded recently in France. 

Additionally, no reports from France indicate that any such terrorist attack or incident occurred recently or after public unrest in France triggered by the death of a 17-year-old, who was killed by a police official in late June 2023.

We had also debunked several false claims with similar communal anti-immigrant undertones shared in the context of the recent French unrest.

The Nice Attack

According to a report by The Washington Post, in the French Riviera city of Nice, on July 14, 2016, a massive truck rammed into a crowd gathered for Bastille Day celebrations and killed at least 84 people and injured at least 202. The truck rammed into the crowd on the Promenade des Anglais. The driver, later identified as Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, was shot dead by the police. The report added that 31-year-old Bouhlel was a Nice resident born in Tunisia.

A total of eight people were on trial over the deadly attack. In December 2022, three people were convicted of association with Bouhlel, the prime accused, while five others were found guilty of supplying weapons, a BBC report stated.

Who was Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel?

According to another BBC report, Lahouaiej-Bouhlel was an engineering student with a "history of violence and mental instability." French prosecutor Francois Molins had told BBC that Lahouaiej-Bouhlel lived a life "far from religion" and had recently developed an interest in radical Islamist movements. The report added that investigators had discovered photos of dead bodies and images associated with radical Islamism on his computer, including the flag of the so-called Islamic State (or ISIS). 

While two days after the attack, the so-called Islamic State claimed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel was one of its followers, French investigators did not find any concrete links between them, a France 24 report on the trial of the others accused said in December 2022.

Logically Facts did not come across any news report that Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel was a refugee. 

Also, contrary to what was claimed in the viral Twitter post that included the disturbing footage, no instance of sexual assault was reported following the incident.

The verdict

The viral clip depicts the aftermath of a terrorist attack in Nice, France, in 2016. There was no instance of sexual assault after the incident. Scenes from the attack were misinterpreted to imply that they show recent violence in France. Therefore, we mark this claim false.