Skip to main content

PeakMetrics / Fact Checks

Disasters & emergencies fact checks

Explore claims publishers have checked about disasters & emergencies. Read their original ratings and follow the evidence.

3,259 published reviews in this topic

APA - Austria Presse AgenturDisasters & emergencies

Im Mai 2023 soll in der italienischen Stadt Mailand ein E-Auto explodiert sein.

Publisher’s rating: Die Aufnahme zeigt eine Explosion von Sauerstoffflaschen in einem Lieferwagen. Zahlreiche Medien berichteten darüber. Nach Angaben der Feuerwehr in Mailand hat es sich um kein E-Auto gehandelt, sondern um eines mit Verbrennungsmotor.

The claim concerns footage of a vehicle exploding in Milan in May 2023, said on social media to show an electric car. The review identifies the incident as the fire on 11 May in Via Pier Lombardo, in central Milan, and says the vehicle was a delivery van carrying oxygen cylinders. It reports that the fire began in the van’s engine and that the subsequent blasts involved the cylinders—not an electric-car battery. The vehicle model cannot be identified from the video itself. To assess what happened, the review compared accounts from Italian media and other outlets, including the Italian fire service’s post about the incident. It says those reports consistently described several explosions involving a van loaded with oxygen cylinders. The review also relays the driver’s account that the fire began at the engine and that he tried unsuccessfully to put out the flames by hand. The strongest evidence addressing the vehicle type is the Milan fire service’s confirmation to AFP, as reported in the review, that the burning van was not electric. The review says Polish fact-checkers also obtained a statement from the Milan fire service through an Italian journalist identifying the vehicle as having a combustion engine. It notes that its own inquiries to the Milan police, fire service and transport company had not received replies by the time the review was published. Thus, the video alone did not establish the vehicle’s powertrain; the reported fire-service statements and accounts of the oxygen cargo address the claim directly.