Video Not Related to the Cartoonist Lars Vilks

12th October 2021

Video Not Related to the Cartoonist Lars Vilks

The video has been on YouTube since 2014 (YouTube).

The Claim

A video shows the moment Swedish Cartoonist Lars Vilks, who made offensive drawings of Prophet Mohammed, burns in a car crash.

News posted on

Emerging story

Facebook and Twitter accounts and pages have recently circulated a video clip, claiming it showed the moment Swedish Cartoonist Lars Vilks, the man who made offensive drawings of Prophet Mohamed, burned to death in a car accident.

The tweeted video allegedly shows Lars Vilks, the Swedish Cartoonist that made offensive drawings of Prophet Mohammed.

Photo Description: The photo shows a screenshot of a Facebook post claiming the man in the video shown with the post is Lars Vilks.

Misbar’s Analysis

Misbar investigated the circulated claim and found it misleading. The video clip was published on YouTube on Sept. 21, 2014. It was published with the title, “A crash of nine cars on the Mozhga-Izhevsk highway.” The highway is located in the Udmurt Republic, a Russian federal subject.

According to Zvezda, an official Russian TV network, the driver is shown in the video died of his burns in the car crash, with no one being able to rescue him.

Photo Description: The photo is a screenshot taken from the original YouTube video published on Sept. 21, 2014, years earlier than the recent car accident in which the Swedish Cartoonist died.

Photo Description: The photo shows a Russian-language news website reporting on the incident in September 2014.

The circulated claim comes against the backdrop of a car accident on Oct. 04, 2021, in which Swedish Cartoonist Lars Vilks died in addition to two police officers. Their driver sustained some injuries in the traffic accident near Markaryd, a town in southern Sweden.

In 2007, offensive drawings of the Muslim Prophet Mohammed caused widespread protests and condemnation across the Muslim World. Vilks has since been under Swedish police protection until his death.

Translated by: Ahmed N. A. Almassri