Verification in a nutshell:
- A first video claiming to show the fire at the Alcazar library in Marseille is actually a fire at the Central Post Office in Manila filmed in May 2023
- A second video claiming to show the fire of the same library is actually the fire of a shopping center in Seine-et-Marne during the recent riots in France
- If the Alcazar library in Marseille was indeed attacked on June 29, it was its storefront that was damaged, and no book or document was affected, contrary to what English-speaking publications on Twitter claim.
A video taken in the Philippines
https://twitter.com/ProjectTabs/status/1676386124007370752 seen more than 50,000 times on Twitter claims that “the Alcazar library in Marseille” was destroyed and that it housed “a million rare historical documents”.
By taking a screenshot of the video targeted at the building, and performing a reverse image search (see how to do it here) through the Russian search engine Yandex, it is possible to find this building : Manila Central Post Office in the Philippines.
A comparison of photos of the building with the video shows that it is indeed the same building with two semi-circles at its edges, and a recognizable square roof.
A fire did break out in Manila’s Central Post Office on May 22 as documented this article from the Associated Press. It had taken more than seven hours for the city’s firefighters to completely bring the fire under control.
Manila Mayor Maria Sheilah Lacuna-Pangan said the fire caused damage of about $5.4 million, according to estimates from the Philippine Fire Protection Bureau.
A video of the riots in France, but not shot in Marseille
https://twitter.com/AaronGIFFss/status/1676428020859670538 of a burning building, shared on Twitter on July 5, has more than 40,000 views. The author of the publication uses the same caption as for the first video, claiming it would be the same library of the Alcazar in Marseille.
The video does show a fire started by rioters in France, but it affected a shopping center in Seine-et-Marne (Île-de-France), and not a library in Marseille.
By taking a screenshot of the video and performing a reverse image search (see here how to proceed), you can see https://twitter.com/FcMbala/status/1674727348099330048 https://twitter.com/billetdefrance/status/1675259495251951616 https://twitter.com/joseribes8/status/1675892155259420672 mentioning a fire at the Croix-Blanche shopping center, in Mée-sur-Seine, a town in Seine-et-Marne.
By comparing with the previews of streets available on Google Maps and Google Earth, we can confirm that the scene was indeed filmed above this shopping center.
Articles of newspapers report on the fire started at the Croix-Blanche shopping center in Mée-sur-Seine on the night of June 29 to 30 following riots. The online media Actu.fr also published https://twitter.com/JulienVanC/status/1674680343410929664?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1674680343410929664%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url= showing fire damage.
Have historical books been burned in a library in Marseille?
If the videos of these publications are fake, what about the claim that a library in the name of “the Alcazar” holding many historical documents burned down ?
On June 29, clashes broke out in downtown Marseille between the police and small groups of rioters resulting in the fire in the front of the Alcazar library, after containers were put at fire and that fireworks were set off.
A very authentic video documented this fire. The images even caused Elon Musk to react on Twitter, who felt that “burning libraries is sacrilege”.
However, as specified by several Marseille media, it was only the front of the library that was damaged. The deputy mayor of Marseille in charge of Culture, Jean-Marc Coppola, estimated that the damage amounted to around 30 000 euros from the media Made in Marseillesand that the work would last a month to renovate the facade of the building.
The daily The Marseillaise indicates for his part: “There was not much damage inside compared to the rest of the district”, quoting a security guard present in the building at the time of the facts. However, the library reopened its doors on Tuesday July 4 after 5 days of closure.
Contacted by the editorial staff of France 24 Observers, the press service of the town hall of Marseille confirms “that no book or document inside the library has been damaged” and that the damage only concerns “the facade ”.
Since the death of Nahel, a teenager killed by a police officer during a road check on Tuesday June 27 in Nanterre, many false information have been shared by accounts abroad with the hashtag #FranceHasFallen, France is collapsing (in French), and uses images that often have nothing to do with the current situation.
Read alsoRiots in France: anti-migrant accounts multiply false information
