CCTV footage of mother and baby separated on a metro platform is staged

A video appearing to show CCTV footage of a woman being separated from a baby while boarding the Paris metro has been circulating online. But this is not real CCTV footage and the scene has been staged. 

The black-and-white footage shows a woman struggling to lift a pram into a metro carriage when the doors close with the woman onboard and the pram on the platform. A time and location stamp suggests the incident took place after midnight on “Line 7”, while both the logo on the carriage and a sign for ‘Louis Blanc’ station suggest it was filmed in a metro station in the 10th arrondissement of Paris. 

Some versions of the clip go on to show a man interacting with the baby and swinging the pram close to the edge of the platform. They have overlaid text saying a “homeless guy saw the scene” and “what he’s gonna do is VERY BAD [sic].” 

But a longer version of the clip shows the woman returning supposedly with a security guard and finding the baby is safe. Multiple posts share the video with the caption: “public transport mothers with babies should be more careful.”

While Full Fact has not been able to locate the original source of this footage, a spokesperson for the company operating the Paris metro, Régie Autonome des Transports Parisiens (RATP), confirmed that this is not genuine CCTV footage. 

A spokesperson for the company told Full Fact: "This video is several years old and has been staged. The person presented as a security guard is not an actual security guard employed by RATP." 

Another clue the video is several years old is that a number of people in the background can be seen wearing masks, which suggests the clip could have been taken at the height of the pandemic. Face masks were compulsory on the Paris metro system from May 2020 until May 2022.

We’ve previously written about other videos of staged scenes that have been shared as if they’re genuine, including those showing an argument on a plane, an Uber driver throwing a passenger into a fountain, and a woman’s drink being spiked.