Viral videos showing an assassination attempt on Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman flooded social media. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's heavily guarded motorcade in Riyadh was bombed, according to information spread on social media platform X (formerly Twitter).
Viral video claims Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was assassinated
Videos pertaining to the alleged bomb attack soon circulated on the microblogging platform. The video further stated that the assassination attempt led to a massive deployment of security forces in the Saudi capital, Riyadh. The alleged assassination attempt on the Saudi Crown Prince, however, has not been confirmed.
????Breaking News????
Unconfirmed reports of an assassination attempt on the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Apparently many of his guards have been killed. pic.twitter.com/ceSBvrFYCC — David Atherton (@DaveAtherton20) May 6, 2024
BBC scribe Shayan Sardarizadeh describes the news as totally baseless, who wrote on X, The share of a totally baseless claim that the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has been assassinated is going viral on X after being shared by well-known misinformation spreaders seeking engagement.
This claim has no basis in fact." Furthermore, BRICS News also stated that the reports of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s assassination were false. Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman survived an assassination attempt.
BREAKING Saudi
Arabian media are reporting a possible assassination attempt against Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. ?
Videos from the scene show a large police presence and what appears to be a burning vehicle.????#BinSalman #SaudiArabia pic.twitter.com/1Tmjl9sLtp — Aiman Khan (@AimanKhan91707) May 7, 2024
MBS was not the target of an assassination attempt; this is fake news.” The alleged fake video has been widely shared by social media users since Tuesday, May 7, claiming that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was assassinated in Saudi Arabia‘s capital, Riyadh. The report said that the Saudi Prince's heavily armed security entourage came under attack.
JUST IN: ???????? Reports of Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman surviving an assassination attempt are false.
MBS was not the target of an assassination attempt, this is fake news. pic.twitter.com/yB4ulXsyCm — BRICS News (@BRICSinfo) May 6, 2024
The report also said that the car bomb attack resulted in significant casualties and injuries, though the Saudi Crown Prince escaped unhurt. The video, which was widely circulated on social media, showed a burning car and the presence of police forces.
The post caption read:
“Arab sources report an assassination attempt against Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.”
“No confirmation for now. The video purports to show some sort of security incident in Saudi Arabia."
it added. The post was first uploaded by Winter Inter on X.
“Arab sources report an assassination attempt against Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman."
However, prominent media houses have tried to confirm the veracity of the video. It was revealed that the video was actually from a fire incident in Riyadh that the Civil Defense dealt with on March 16, 2024. There is even a post from the General Directorate of Civil Defense on X which read,
“Riyadh Civil Defense extinguished a fire in two vehicles following a traffic accident, and there were no injuries.”
Several journalists have also taken to X to debunk the video and have even expressed their anger at the spread of such fake news.