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  • 2020-10-14 (xsd:date)
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  • This footage shows a police training drill in Hangzhou in 2020 (en)
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  • A video has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times in multiple posts on Weibo, YouTube, Facebook and WeChat which claim it shows a real police operation to rescue a hostage in the Chinese city of Hangzhou. The claim is false; the video actually shows a police training drill in Hangzhou in 2020. The footage was published on Weibo here on September 29, 2020. The video has been viewed more than 130,000 times. Screenshot taken on October 13, 2020, of the misleading Weibo post The post’s simplified Chinese-language caption translates to English as: Emergency that happened by the West Lake's Broken Bridge, see special police officers in Hangzhou react quickly and deal with it! The Broken Bridge is a scenic leisure spot on the West Lake , a popular and historical site in Hangzhou . The video was also shared and viewed hundreds of thousands of times alongside a similar claim on Weibo here , here and here , on YouTube here , on Facebook here and on WeChat here . The claim, however, is false. A frame-by-frame analysis of the video found a simplified Chinese banner at the one-second mark that translates to English as: Public security officers are conducting a drill / Please cooperate. Below is a screenshot of the footage with the banner circled in red by AFP: Screenshot of the footage A team of videographers can also be seen in the footage filming the police drill. Below are two screenshots with the videographers circled in red by AFP: Screenshots of the footage A keyword search found this news article by Metro Express, a local publication in Hangzhou, that was published on September 28, 2020. The article states in the fourth paragraph: Our reporter's verification shows that recently, Hangzhou public security carried out ‘thunder action’ exercises in key areas of the city, including the populous scenic area of the West Lake's Broken Bridge. The content of the exercise is ‘rescuing a hijacked hostage’. Police officers including public security officers of the senetic area and special police officers participated in the exercise. Police in Hangzhou also said the video shows a drill in a post published on its official Weibo channel here on September 28, 2020. Screenshot of the Weibo post by police in Hangzhou The exact location of the police drill beside the Broken Bridge can be seen here on Baidu Maps. The same claim was also fact checked by Weibo and the fact-checking channel of Chinese state media site fjsen.com . (en)
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