Photo of busy train carriage is from Cairo, not Sweden

A photo of a train carriage where all but one of the women are wearing religious dress has been shared with claims it shows Malmö in Sweden, but it was almost certainly taken in Egypt.  

One post, with more than 1,300 shares, says: “This is not Iran, this is Malmö, Sweden, which is occupied by Islam”. 

However, this photo does not come from Malmö, which has no metro or tram system operating within the city (although a metro line connecting it to Copenhagen in Denmark has been proposed). 

Skanetrafiken, the company responsible for public transport networks in Malmö, confirmed to Full Fact that “it's not a picture from Malmö”. 

Footage of trains that connect Malmö to other places in Sweden are visibly different to the carriage in the image. The metro (Tunnelbana) and trams in Sweden’s capital, Stockholm, also do not resemble the carriage in the image. 

But the picture does match footage and images of the electric Light Rail Transit (LRT) system in Cairo—and has the same screens, red posters, handrails, lights and doors. The LRT opened in July 2022 and connects the New Administrative Capital in east Cairo with Greater Cairo.  

Full Fact approached Cairo’s Public Transport Authority and Egypt’s National Authority of Tunnels (responsible for building LRT lines) for comment and we will update this article if we receive a response. 

Miscaptioned images and videos are a common form of online misinformation. We’ve recently written about false claims that a video of a bazaar in Pakistan showed scenes in Bradford in the UK and a photo from a protest in Colombia was of a woman about to be stoned to death in Iran. 

It’s important to consider whether something shows what it claims to before sharing it only—we’ve written guides on how to identify misleading images and videos that may help you do this. 

Image courtesy of Alf van Beem