Video of Chile train disaster sparks false reports of train wrecks in India

India's railway network has seen a series of tragedies over the years but the dramatic footage of a train pile-up was not captured in the southern city of Chennai in December 2024, contrary to rumors on Facebook and Instagram. The incident described in these posts has been recreated, Indian authorities told AFP, and the video shows the accident that killed many people in Chile in June 2024.

“Vande Bharat train has met with an accident,” read a Hindi-language Facebook post that shared the video on January 1, referring to the multi-city train service.

This video shows a dramatic train pile-up, with one carriage stacked on top of another.

The Hindi text overlaid on the clip reads: “Vande Bharat Express met with an accident at Chennai on December 29, 2024, at 2 AM.”

A screenshot of the fake post was taken on January 5, 2025

This video is doing the rounds in similar posts on Instagram and Facebook.

India has the largest railway network in the world and has seen several disasters over the years (archived link).

The worst occurred in 1981 when a train derailed and crossed a bridge in the state of Bihar, killing an estimated 800 people.

About 300 people were killed in a three-train accident in Odisha state in June 2023, when a freight train accidentally diverted from the loop line and collided with a freight train loaded with iron ore.

The posts being distributed, however, were baseless according to the railway authorities in India.

“Vande Bharat train has never met with an accident in Chennai,” a A spokesperson for Southern Railway told AFP on January 15.This is totally fake news.”

The tragedy of Chile

A reverse image search of the video on Google found a similar image in a report about a train crash in Chile.

AFP posted this clip on June 20 in a YouTube video titled: “Chile rail collision kills two” (archived link).

Below is a screenshot comparison of the video shared on the fake social media post (left) and the AFP video (right).

Two people died and nine were injured when a freight train and an empty train collided on the outskirts of the capital Santiago, reported AFP.(archived link).

The accident claimed the lives of the freight train driver and his assistant.

The freight train belongs to the private company Pacific Railways (Fepasa) while the The train belonged to the state-owned EFE railway company, the report said.

I The Fepasa logo is clearly visible at the 36-second mark of the AFP video, as shown in the screenshot below: