Viral TikTok of a man rescuing a dog from train tracks accused of being fake

A viral TikTok appearing to show a man rescuing a dog that was tied to train tracks has been labelled as a likely fake.

The clip was posted by TikTok user @random_crap.69 and has been viewed on the platform 21 million times, with 2.9 million likes.

In the video, a man is seen running alongside a train track as an oncoming freight train approaches. He runs towards a dog that appears to have been tied by a rope to the railway tracks.

Over the top of the video, the text reads: “This guy’s a legend.”

The audio picks up the sound of the train beeping while people shout at the man to get off the tracks, saying, “You’re going to get killed”.

The man unties the dog and pulls it off the tracks moments before the train reaches them.

Sign up to our new free Indy100 weekly newsletter

Some people in the comments commended the man for his bravery, calling him a “legend”.

However, now the heroic-looking video has been accused of being faked and heavily edited to look real.

Fact-checking website Snopes dug deeper to uncover if the video was real, and found that it was highly likely it is faked.

Their suspicions were that two separate clips had been filmed in the same location and merged together, to give the appearance that a train was approaching at the time of the dog “rescue”.

By analysing the clip frame by frame, the fact-checkers noticed that at one point when the train passed, the man and dog were in its shadow. But, they saw that the man’s head was also casting its own shadow, even though he was in shade.

This proved that two separate clips had been recorded at different times and digitally merged together to give the impression of a daring rescue.

According to Snopes, the video was reportedly first posted on TikTok user @richysand’s account but was removed by TikTok for violating the platform’s Community Guidelines on dangerous acts.