Billowing smoke, a large explosion, and an ominous mushroom cloud towering over buildings nearby. This hair-raising footage that appears to be shot from a moving vehicle has been making the rounds on social media.

"Explosion in a factory in Dasna, Ghaziabad district of Uttar Pradesh. More than 40 people died," said one post on Facebook. Other such posts can be seen here and here.

Was there an explosion in Ghaziabad?

A Google search on recent industrial mishaps in Dasna, a town in the Ghaziabad district, led us to reports about a soap manufacturing unit that went up in flames on June 12. Per the report, there was no loss of life in the mishap at the factory in Ghaziabad's Bulandshahr Road.

However, the video in circulation was posted before June 12. Thus, the soap factory mishap could not have been captured in the viral video.

An advanced search led us to a Jagran story that said a video of a blast at Hapur was shared with the claim that it was from Dasna. A boiler explosion at a Ruhi Industry factory in Hapur on June 4 left a dozen people dead and 20 injured. The blast at the factory was so strong that its sound was heard 10 km away, said reports. This video, however, was not the same as the one in question.

To figure out if there was an explosion in the region that claimed so many lives, AFWA reached out to Iraj Raja, the SP Rural for Ghaziabad. Raja said, “There has been no such recent incident of any factory explosion in Dasna or Ghaziabad that claimed the lives of 40...

Read Full Story: https://www.indiatoday.in/fact-check/story/people-die-factory-blast-dasna-gha...