Amid rising fuel shortages in Sri Lanka owing to the ongoing US-Israel conflict with Iran that has pushed global oil prices higher, a user named @italyhoru has posted a video on TikTok purportedly showing a fight between two groups of people at a petrol pump. The post appears to mock President Anura Kumara Dissanayake by overlaying his election campaign speech onto the video, where he had promised uninterrupted vehicle imports and fuel supply.
As there has not been any recent news about any altercations among citizens during the current fuel crisis, Newschecker decided to look into the veracity of this claim. We found the claim to be misleading upon investigation.
Evidence
- We first did a keyword search using multiple combinations of the words “fight”, “fuel station”, “petrol station”, “Sri Lanka”, “2026”, “fuel shortage”, and “Anura Kumara Dissanayake”. We were unable to find any recent news about altercations among citizens due to the current fuel shortage in Sri Lanka.
- We then performed reverse image searches of several keyframes of the video and found matching footage on YouTube dating back to May 21, 2022.
- The following AdaDerana 6.55 pm news update from May 21, 2022 shows the same footage and states that the fight occurred among citizens at the fuel station on Marathadi Road in Trincomalee in the evening of May 20, 2022. The newsreader explains the situation 4 minutes and 20 seconds into the video posted on AdaDerana’s verified YouTube channel.
As a result, we were able to confirm that the video on TikTok is old and from May 2022, when the country was undergoing a severe fuel crisis due to the economic and political crisis under the then Rajapaksa regime.
Context
Currently, due to the conflict between US-Israel and Iran, many countries, including Sri Lanka, are facing a fuel crisis. As a result, several social media users are discussing the current government’s strategies to control fuel supply and demand. These discussions have included videos of the 2022 economic and political crisis that had led to a larger fuel shortage in the country. The physical altercations (such as the one viral on TikTok) have been proven to be caused by the economic precarity it faced under the Rajapaksa family’s regime since 2005.
Verdict
A viral video of a clash between two groups of citizens at a petrol pump, implying that the incident occurred during the recent fuel shortage, is misleading. The video is of a fight that occurred on May 20, 2022 in Trincomalee during the then political and economic crisis under the Rajapaksa regime.
FAQs
Q1. What does the video show?
A physical altercation between two groups of citizens at a fuel station in Sri Lanka. The fuel station appears to be overcrowded, and several citizens are fighting in front of a fuel pump.
Q2. When was the TikTok posted and when did the actual incident in the video take place?
March 27, 2026 and May 20, 2022, respectively.
Q3. Does this incident in the video bear any relationship with the current shortage of fuel due to the US-Israel vs Iran conflict?
No. The video is in fact of an altercation that took place at a fuel station on Marathadi Road in Trincomalee during the 2022 economic crisis.
Our Sources
‘Petrol shed fight in Trincomalee !’, posted on the YouTube channel of ARVLoshan News, May 21, 2022
‘අද දෙරණ 6.55 ප්රධාන පුවත් විකාශය – 2022.05.21 | Ada Derana Prime Time News Bulletin’, posted on the Ada Derana YouTube channel, May 21, 2022
