Following a series of arson and incendiary attacks in Thailand's insurgency-hit south in August, footage of a blaze was shared in social media posts falsely linking it to the coordinated incidents. The clip, which originally circulated online before the unrest was reported, in fact shows a fire at a market in the kingdom's northeastern economic hub.
" Another clip of an incident perpetrated by the southern insurgents," says part of the Thai-language caption of an X video shared on August 23, 2026.
Filmed from a passing car, it shows firefighters attempting to extinguish a blaze in tenement houses as the sky fills with thick grey smoke.
The footage circulated a day after dozens of coordinated attacks across Thailand's south left at least three people wounded and burned property ( archived link).
Since 2004, a low-level conflict has simmered in the southernmost provinces of the Buddhist-majority nation, killing more than 7,000 people, as rebels in the Muslim-majority region battle for greater autonomy.
According to the military's Internal Security Operations Command, multiple local government offices and several vehicles were damaged or destroyed in the 51 attacks.
Most were in Narathiwat province, where the three civilians were wounded and an overnight curfew was imposed, while other attacks occurred in neighbouring Yala and Pattani provinces, authorities said.
The same footage was also shared elsewhere on Facebook and Threads.
" All those in charge of the region should be sacked," says a comment on one of the posts, while another says: "This is terrorism, not just unrest."
But the video does not show one of the recent attacks.
A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the falsely shared video led to similar images shared on Facebook on August 22, and posted in a community page about the northeastern Thai province of Khon Kaen ( archived link).
Khon Kaen is located hundreds of kilometres (miles) north of Thailand's southernmost provinces.
A subsequent keyword search on Facebook led to a recording of a livestream of the firefighting efforts that started at 4:50 pm on August 22 -- several hours before the first attacks were reported on the night of the same day (archived here and here).
"Help needed, fire at Non Han," says the livestream's Thai-language caption, referring to a market in the Chumpae district of Khon Kaen province.
The 50-minute livestream shows people trying to put out the fire, as fire trucks and ambulances arrive on the scene.
According to a provincial outlet in Khon Kaen, the fire broke out at a building in the area of Non Han market. Four stores, one gold shop and nearby homes were damaged, and more than 20 fire trucks were dispatched to rein in the blaze ( archived link).
Authorities are still investigating the cause of the fire, according to the report.
Moreover, elements in the video -- particularly a yellow four-storey building, an electricity pole and a tree -- correspond to Google Street View imagery captured near the market.
AFP has previously debunked similar falsehoods misrepresenting unrelated footage of fires.