Does a viral video actually show a group of people attempting to set a Yorkshire church on fire in broad daylight? No, that's not true: The clip showed a place of worship in Mexico, not the U.K. Images of the church in Mexico match with the appearance of the church in the clip.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published on X by @SaveukChurches on May 19, 2026. It opened:
Masked protestors just set fire to the entrance of a Yorkshire church...
The post shared a video, and here is what a thumbnail from it looked like:
(Image source: post by @SaveukChurches on X.)
In reality, the video showed the city of Santiago de Querétaro (archived here) in central Mexico.
As the composite image below demonstrates, several unique identifiers, including the color of the building's wall, the door's design and the coat of arms seen on it, matched the appearance of the Church of San Francisco (archived here) located there.
(Image sources: X, Google Maps, composite image by Lead Stories.)
The video in question had been online since March 8, 2026 (archived here), when it was published on Facebook by local outlet QueretaNews (archived here). The original caption additionally confirmed that the location was not Yorkshire. As automatically translated to English, it read:
This afternoon, during the 8M commemoration march, at least 4 women caused damage to the door of the temple of St. Francis of Assisi by burning it. These people went with their faces totally covered.
