Sand was not used to fill potholes along the coronation procession route

Thousands of people have shared claims on social media that sand was used to fill potholes on the procession route for King Charles’ coronation. But this is not true.

Some of the claims we’ve seen circulating include what appears to be a screenshot of a since-deleted tweet, which has been shared by thousands of users on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. It shows an aerial image of the procession in central London on 6 May with multiple patches of sand on the road surface. 

The text says: “Something very poetic about a king in a golden coach being driven over a load of potholes filled with wet sand because no one in his country has the money to fix the roads properly.” 

Others have made similar claims using slightly different images or no images at all. 

But…