Claim: A video shows a firing incident at the Saudi Royal Palace in Riyadh in March 2026.
Fact: The video is not recent, and surfaced online in April 2018, with publications and social media posts linking it to an incident of firing near the royal palace in Riyadh. There are no credible reports that such an incident took place recently.
On 24 March, an X user posted a clip (archive) supposedly showing a firing incident that occurred at the Saudi Royal Palace. The post states:
“BREAKING
Urgent and Important: Sounds of gunfire inside the Saudi Royal Palace in Riyadh, the residence of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.”
The video surfaced last month amid the recent US-Israel war with Iran.
Fact or Fiction?
The clip is old and appeared online as early as April 2018 with reports and social media posts linking it to a firing incident near the royal palace in Riyadh at the time.
A reverse-search of its keyframes led to a Facebook post with the same footage (archive) shared on 22 April 2018. This post’s caption also linked the video to claims of a gunfire reported near the Saudi royal palace at the time. It stated: [translated from Arabic into English via Google Translate]: “Heavy gunfire exchanged in front of the palace of Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz.”
The video being fact-checked (right) matches a video shared with the same claim on Facebook in April 2018 (left).
An X user shared the same video on 21 April 2018 (archive), with the following caption [translated from Arabic into English via Google Translate]: “#Breaking
From a source in the Royal Court: It has been confirmed that the King has been transferred to the airbase for his protection.”
This above X video was also published by Lidové Noviny, a Czech publication, in its article on 21 April 2018. According to the report, a drone was shot down near the residence of Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz and caused alarm.
Another X user also posted the footage on 21 April 2018 (archive) with a caption stating the location was Riyadh.
An Arabic platform “mushahide” included the video on its website on 21 April 2018, under the title, “A drone attacked King Salman’s palace, but the Royal Guard shot it down – video”. Part of this video, specifically scenes till the 0:28 mark, match the video being factchecked. The description of this video on YouTube also linked it to claims of a recreational drone shot down near the royal palace.
Soch Fact Check also found a report by CNN (Arabic) which shared the same footage on 22 April 2018, titled [translated from Arabic into English via Google Translate], “This is the sound of gunfire in the Saudi royal palaces area.” The description reads: “An unauthorized drone flew over the royal palace area in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, on Saturday night, according to the Saudi Press Agency.”
Keyword searches based on the above information led to reports citing the Saudi Arabian security forces saying they shot down a recreational drone in an area where royal palaces are located, as the videos of gunfire appeared online, in April 2018.
Moreover, we did not find any credible reports about such an incident taking place at the palace in Saudi Arabia recently.
Soch Fact Check, therefore, rates the claim as false as the video is old and there is no evidence that any such event occurred.
Virality
The X post garnered 876,300 views and was liked 8,900 times.
It appeared on Facebook here, here, here, and here.
On Instagram here, here, here, here, and here.
Conclusion: Soch Fact Check’s analysis shows the footage is old, and surfaced online as early as April 2018. Soch Fact Check cannot verify what exactly the footage shows. Additionally, there are no credible reports that such an incident took place recently. But the fact that publications and social media posts linked it to the incident of firing near the royal palace in Riyadh in April 2018, confirms the claim is false.
Background image in cover photo: Mashable
To appeal against our fact-check, please send an email to appeals@sochfactcheck.com