Video from Chile shared as recent Vande Bharat train collision in India

What is the claim? 

A video depicting a train collision has gone viral with the false claim that it shows an accident involving the Vande Bharat train in India, a medium-distance superfast express service. This video gained traction following recent train accidents in India, including the derailment of the Chandigarh-Dibrugarh Express in Uttar Pradesh on July 18, 2024, which resulted in at least two fatalities and over 30 injuries.

On July 17, a Facebook user shared a 15-second video (archived here) of two trains crashing, with the following Hindi text overlaid: “Vande Mataram Bharat train climbed on top of the engine, you can see the terrible accident Vande Bharat (sic).”

The post received around 45,000 reactions and over 8 million views on Facebook. Archived versions of other claims featuring this video can be viewed here, here, and here.

Screenshots of the viral video on Facebook that claim to show an accident involving the Vande Bharat train. (Source: Facebook/Modified by Logically Facts)

However, this claim is false. The video actually depicts a train collision in Chile, not India.

What we found 

The letters ‘FEPASA’ visible on the side of a train in the video indicate it belongs to ‘Ferrocarril del Pacífico S.A.,’ a freight transport company operating in Chile.

A a Google search led us to an Associated Press article (archived here) dated June 21, 2024, reporting a train accident in San Bernardo, a district near Santiago, Chile. The AP report details a collision between a freight train and another train conducting a test run on June 20, 2024, resulting in the deaths of two rail workers and injuries to nine others.

Further investigation revealed a video by AFP (archived here) dated June 20, titled “Railway collision in Chile kills two people,” and another video by AP (archived here) titled “LIVE: Train collision in Chile kills at least 2 people and injures 9 others,” both featuring footage from the collision.

Comparing frames from the viral video with those from the AP and AFP videos reveals the same blue design details and the ‘FEPASA’ decal on the trains.

A comparison of a frame from the claim and a screenshot from the video uploaded by media outlet AFP. (Source: Facebook/AFP)

Additionally, a Google search yielded no results for a recent Vande Bharat train crash in India.

This claim has emerged amid multiple train accidents in India, raising concerns about passenger safety and infrastructure. Notably, the Chandigarh-Dibrugarh Express derailment is the fourth train accident in 2024. It occurred closely after the Kanchenjunga Express derailment in Darjeeling, West Bengal, in June 2024, which resulted in ten deaths.

The verdict 

The video, showing a train accident in Chile from June 2024, is being shared with the false claim that it depicts a Vande Bharat train collision in India.