Video of girls abducted in Egypt falsely shared as incident from Bengaluru

What is the claim?

A video depicting two men allegedly kidnapping two girls in an elevator has gone viral on social media. The footage reveals two girls in an elevator; as the elevator halts, two men are seen rendering the girls unconscious with a drug before abducting them. This video has been shared with a false communal angle, claiming that Muslim men kidnapped two Hindu girls in Bengaluru, Karnataka, in South India.

One such post on platform X, featuring this video, was shared with the caption: "Karnataka, Bangalore – see how jihadis are abducting Hindu girls from the lift by inhaling chloroform… (sic).” Archived versions of similar posts can be accessed here, here, and here.

Screenshots of viral posts. (Source: X/ Modified by Logically)

Contrary to these claims, the video originates from Egypt and details an incident where a man kidnapped his two daughters in December 2023. The motivation behind this act was a familial dispute, with the girls living with their mother at the time. This incident has no connection to any events in Bengaluru.

How did we verify this?

A reverse image search of keyframes from the viral clip led us to a video posted on Al Arabiya News' YouTube channel dated December 21, 2023. This video matches the visuals from the viral clip.

According to the Al Arabiya News report, this video, showing the girls being abducted with intoxicants, had gone viral in Egypt. It was later revealed that their father had orchestrated the abduction.

Al-Masri Al-Youm, an Egyptian news site, cited a police source explaining that the incident, occurring on December 13, 2023, in East Cairo, involved the girls' father, who fled with one of the daughters to another Arab country.

Further evidence came from a statement by the Egyptian Ministry of Interior, published on X on December 20, 2023. It clarified that the father, aided by two accomplices, executed the kidnapping as seen in the video and left Egypt on the same day. The girls' mother, residing in Nasr City, Cairo, informed the police that her ex-husband, an accountant, had taken one daughter without her consent. The couple had separated in 2022 amidst ongoing disputes.

Al-Khaleej, in a report dated December 23, 2023, noted that the building's security guard had previously thwarted the father's attempts to kidnap his daughters from their mother.

The report also includes a statement from one of the victims, who recounted that her father and his friend approached them near the elevator. They sprayed a drug on both the sisters, and despite their resistance, only one was saved by the intervention of the property guard, while the father escaped with the other sister in a taxi.

The verdict 

Our investigation reveals that the video, erroneously associated with claims of Muslim men abducting Hindu girls in Bengaluru, Karnataka, actually documents an incident from Cairo, Egypt. The footage shows a father abducting his daughters with assistance from two others. Therefore, we have marked this claim as false.

(Translated by: Azra Ali)