Old Video Showing 'Sniper' On Rooftop Goes Viral As Recent One From France

This video is unrelated to the ongoing protests in France as it has been on the internet since March 2023.

Fact-check: An old video showing a 'sniper' at a rooftop in France is being wrongly linked with the ongoing protests in the country.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

A video showing a 'sniper' on a rooftop taking an aim at the ground is going viral on social media with a claim that this visual is from the ongoing protest in France.

The country is witnessing massive protests after a 17-year-old was allegedly shot dead by the police on 27 June.

An archive of the post can be seen here.

(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

(More archives of similar claims can be found here and here.)

What's the truth?: We could trace this video back to March 2023 which predates the ongoing protests.

• The video, however, is from Hautes Noues, Villiers-sur-Marne, France.

How did we find out the truth?: We performed a reverse image search on some of the keyframes of he video, which led us to an old tweet from 6 March 2023, that carried the viral video's longer version.

• This video carried a location tag that shows on the mobile application called Snapchat.

• The tag read 'Hautes Noues, Villiers-sur-Marne, France'.

The location was Hautes Noues in France.

(Source: Altered by The Quint)

• Taking a cue, we looked for the location on Google maps and found the exact location from where the video was shot.

• We matched the slightly-curved building, the tower opposite it and the tree along with a small lawn.

Comparison between the viral video and Google maps.

(Source: Altered by The Quint)

Conclusion: Although we could not independently verify if the 'sniper' seen in the video is real or not, we were able to prove that the video is old and unrelated the ongoing protests in France.

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