Local firefighters say an electrical fault sparked a fire that ravaged a Christmas tree in southern China in December 2024, contrary to posts sharing anti-immigrant comments alongside an image of the tree and claiming it was set on fire by Muslims in the United Kingdom. Similar images of the fire circulated in social media posts and news reports at the time, and firefighters said a short circuit — not arson — was to blame.
“Muslims in the UK burned the Christmas tree… They will never assimilate,” reads part of the caption of an image posted on December 26, 2025.
The image, posted on a Facebook page sharing news about the Pacific island nation of Tonga, shows a Christmas tree on fire in what appears to be a shopping mall.
Text superimposed on the image reads: “Islamic jihadist burnt Christmas tree in UK.”
Screenshot of the fake Facebook post captured on January 2, 2026, with a red X added by AFP
Similar messages spread to neighboring Australia – where thousands of people have taken part in anti-immigration marches in recent months – and video of the tree burning also circulated in posts from users in the Philippines, Nigeria and Britain (archived link).
“Not just the UK,” a comment on one of the posts read, while another said “deport everyone”.
But the images circulating do not represent an incident in the United Kingdom, nor a fire deliberately set.
A reverse image search on Google turned up reports of a Christmas tree that caught fire in Sanli Square in southwest China’s megacity of Chengdu on December 25, 2024 (archived here and here).
A video of the tree was posted on the mall’s official Weibo page earlier this month (archived link).
The image circulating appears to be a cropped image from a Weibo video posted the day after the fire (archived link). A similar article shows the fire from a different perspective (archived link).
Comparison of screenshots of the falsely shared image (L) and the corresponding video posted on Weibo
Local firefighters announced on December 28, 2024 that the fire was caused by “a short circuit in the electrical wiring of the Christmas tree”, thus ruling out arson and other causes (archived link).
AFP has already verified other Christmas-related misinformation.
