Video showing passengers dying at Italy airport due to coronavirus is fake

New Delhi, Mar 22: A 15 minute video showing passengers dying at an airport has gone viral. The video has been posted several times on the social media and also forwarded on Facebook.

Some forwards claim that it is from an airport in Italy, while others say that this was shot at the Addis Ababa airport. It says that most of them are infected by the coronavirus. In other posts it is claimed that people queued up at an airport in Italy are dying.

Both claims are however fake. This was in fact a mock drill that was exercised in November 2019 at the Blaise Diagne Airport at Dakar, Senegal. The mock drill was carried out by the police and members of staff to practise a hostage taking scenario. This was also reported on November 28 2019 by Thies info. https://www.thiesinfo.com/exercice-a-laibd-la-securite-de-laeroport-en-demonstration-de-force.

This video has done the rounds before too. This was also debunked by the AFP in March 2020. https://factuel.afp.com/non-cette-video-ne-montre-pas-une-scene-de-panique-causee-par-le-coronavirus-au-senegal.