Egypt police arrest five people for using children to stage fake 'Aleppo' footage

Egypt's police detained a man for making staged "wounded children" photos, which he was planning to use to misrepresent on social media as photos of destruction and injured people in Syria's Aleppo, the Egyptian Interior Ministry said on Monday.

According to the Ministry, the police witnessed the shooting process, which was taking place near the vestiges of a building destroyed as illegal under the decision of the local authorities.

A girl standing in a white dress covered in "blood" that later proved to be paint drew attention of a police officer driving by. The girl held a teddy bear covered in the same "blood" and had her arm "bandaged". A camera and six mobile phones were seized at the scene. The photographer is still being held while authorities go through the material, officials said, but the other four suspects were released on bail. 

Syrian activists and White Helmets rescue workers, until recently trapped inside east Aleppo's siege barricades, have frequently been accused by critics of faking harrowing footage of the aftermath of bombings and digging survivors from rubble that have frequently emerged from the war-torn city. 

Many other videos and photos of incidents reportedly from Aleppo which circulate on social media are staged or filmed elsewhere, both the Syrian government and its allies say.