False Facebook post claims baby abandoned in Bristol
What was claimed
A newborn baby has been found abandoned in Hengrove, Bristol.
Our verdict
This is not true. The image shows a baby in Thailand two years ago, and the police say they are not aware of a baby being found in Hengrove.
A Facebook post falsely claims that a newborn baby has been found abandoned in Hengrove, Bristol.
The post, which is dated 29 August, says: “A newborn baby has been found in Hengrove this morning by the police. Let us spread the word and help identifying who this newborn baby belongs to. #abandonedbaby”.
However, the photograph included with the post is the same one that was used in an article in the Mirror two years ago, describing the discovery of an abandoned baby in Thailand.
Avon and Somerset police, which covers the Hengrove area, has also told Full Fact that it is not aware of any reports of babies being found.
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False stories of abandoned babies have been very common on social media recently. We have checked examples of babies supposedly found in Essex, Barnsley, Sheffield, Leeds, Ashford, Kirton and Greater Manchester since the beginning of August.
Image courtesy of Omar Lopez
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as false because this picture shows a baby found in Thailand two years ago, and the police are not aware of an abandoned baby in Hengrove.
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