Breaking NewsCoronavirus
FAKE ALERT: No, Russia Does Not Have Lions Roaming the Streets to Keep People Indoors
Many social media users are sharing a graphic card with an image of a lion, that looks like a screengrab from a television news channel, claiming that Russia has unleashed over 500 lions on its streets to ensure people stay indoors in the light of the coronavirus pandemic and the lockdown.
The graphic card is made to appear as if it's a screengrab from a television news channel. Some users used the image of the lion, without the ‘Breaking News' graphics on it, and shared it with similar claims.”
Some other social media users are sharing the image of the lion alone, without the ‘Breaking News' graphics, making similar claims.
For instance, Twitter user who goes by the handle ‘@Mavunya_' tweeted the image of the lion saying, “Russian president Vladimir Putin released 800 lions and tigers across Russia to devour anyone who comes out. Stay home or die hard.”
Both these images are being shared widely on Facebook and WhatsApp as well.
The ‘Breaking News' graphic was added using a website called ‘Break Your Own News' that lets people design their own ‘breaking news'.
Simple reverse-image search on the image of the lion will lead you to a report published in Metro (UK) on April 15, 2016, with the title ‘Lion casually walks through city centre'. The report carries the same image and it is credited to Caters News Agency.
About the incident from South Africa's Johannesburg, the report said that the lion — Columbus — was brought to the city to ‘act' in a film by a local production, but that the production company did not take necessary permissions for filming.
It is clear that the photo is from 2016 and it has nothing to do with Russia, Vladimir Putin and Covid-19 pandemic.
Break Your Own News' is a website that allows people to make their own ‘breaking news' graphic cards. Some fake-news peddler used the Caters image of Columbus to create a fake breaking news graphic.
Also, there are no credible reports about Russia doing anything remotely close to what is being claimed.
Times Fact Check has found the claim that Russia has unleashed over 500 lions on its streets to ensure people stay indoors in the light of coronavirus pandemic to be false. The image of the lion used to make this claim is one clicked in 2016.
