A photo shows masked men carrying axes in a hospital in central Birmingham.
This image is not a real photo of a recent incident at a Birmingham hospital—it has been edited or created using Google AI tools. West Midlands Police say there was “no disorder" at hospitals in Birmingham following the stabbing of a 16-year-old, and that images circulating on social media supposedly showing people carrying weapons in a hospital are fake.
An image has been widely shared on social media with claims it shows masked men entering a hospital in central Birmingham recently. But this image is not a real photo of a recent incident at a Birmingham hospital—it was created or modified using Google Artificial Intelligence (AI), and West Midlands Police say no “disorder” took place.
The picture shows multiple hooded and masked individuals, some of whom are carrying axes, in a doorway where some of the glass windows have been smashed.
It was shared on X with the caption: “Meanwhile in Birmingham, UK Following the stabbing of a 16 year old boy a gang of axe wielding thugs ravaged an A&E Department at the local hospital.” X owner Elon Musk shared a post that included the photo and asked “What happened here?”, though the post he shared has since been deleted.
A Facebook post shares a cropped version of the image with the caption: “NEW: Images reportedly show masked men with axes in a hospital in central Birmingham yesterday.”
However, this picture has been modified or created with Google AI tools. When we put the full image into Google Lens, under “About this image”, it said “Made with Google AI”. A Google spokesperson told Full Fact that a SynthID—a digital watermark embedded into content made with Google AI products that is not visible to the human eye—was detected on the image, and that this means “the image has been generated or modified with AI”.
When we wrote last month about an unrelated image that also had a SynthID watermark, Google said it could not confirm how or to what degree AI was used to generate or modify the image.
There are some other clues that the image of masked men was created or edited using artificial intelligence. For example, the leg of a person to the right and the eyes of three figures in the middle haven’t formed properly, and the green fire exit sign shows nonsensical shapes. One man carrying an axe also appears to have six fingers on his right hand.
We’ve seen some speculation that the image is a screenshot from the 2012 Batman film The Dark Knight Rises. While it’s possible that AI tools could’ve been used to adapt an existing image, such as a still from a film, we could not see a scene in that film that appears to match the image being shared online. We haven’t seen anyone else identify a specific scene that matches the image either.
We’ve written about many images that appear to have been created using artificial intelligence. Our guides offer some useful tips for identifying AI-generated images, and deepfake videos and audio.
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A statement from West Midlands Police on 17 February said “we know that no disorder took place at any hospital in Birmingham”, and that “images being shared on social media which claim to show people carrying weapons at a hospital are fake”. The force added: “We have confirmed this with officers who were in attendance, ambulance officials, and hospital staff who were on duty at the time.”
West Midlands Police initially said it was investigating reports of disorder involving a number of people at a Birmingham hospital which was believed to be linked to a stabbing in the area, as well as reports that ambulances were raided or unable to drop-off patients at two Birmingham hospitals.
A 16-year-old was stabbed in Bordesley Green, in Birmingham, on 15 February, and was taken to the hospital with serious injuries. Police said in their statement two days later that he was in a stable condition. A teenager has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, and ITV reported “a number of people” protested against knife crime in the area on 16 February. The police said there had been a “peace vigil” in the area on that day.
The police statement said: “After investigating, we have found that the boy's family, along with community members close to him, gathered at the hospital and were understandably upset and concerned with his welfare. There was no disorder. Any claims of ambulances being raided or looted are untrue.”
The Birmingham Mail has also published a detailed account of the incident at the hospital.
Misinformation can spread quickly online, and may create panic within communities, or risk fuelling actual unrest, especially in the wake of a serious crime. We’ve written about the role misinformation played in riots last summer after three children were killed in Southport.
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 the image is not a real photo of a recent incident at a Birmingham hospital, and was created or edited with Google AI.
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