Claim
An Indian Hindu man, Bhuvesh Patel, caught attempting to start a fire with a blowtorch in wildfire-hit Woodland Hills, Los Angeles.

Fact
Claim is false, suspect identified as Mexican national Juan Manuel Sierra-Leyva.

A 47-second video, purportedly showing police officers apprehending a man by pinning him to the pavement next to a house, has gone viral with the claim that it shows an Indian Hindu man, Bhuvesh Patel, caught attempting to ignite a blaze with a blowtorch in Woodland Hills in wildfire-hit Los Angeles, California.

“An Indian Hindu Bhuvesh Patel was caught trying to start a fire with a torch blower for looting in areas devastated by fires. location Woodland Hills, CA. Is this the kind of visa holders Elon is inviting to the USA through H1B visa,” read one such X post, sharing the video. The archived version of the post can be seen here.

The claims have gone viral against the backdrop of the intense online hate campaigns targeting Indians following the recent debate in the US over the H-1B visa programme. Devastating wind-fed fires have reportedly killed at least 24 people and swept through 37,000 acres in the greater Los Angeles area in California, destroying entire communities and more than 12,000 structures.

Fact Check

Newschecker first ran a keyword search for “Bhuvesh Patel Indian Woodland Hills fire blowtorch”, which did not lead us to any credible news reports about such an incident.

We next ran a search for “Woodland Hills man caught blowtorch”,...

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