Photographs which claim to show Syrian volunteer rescue workers, known as the White Helmets, staging a chemical attack in Eastern Ghouta were actually taken from a film set, according to Factuel, an AFP fact-checking blog.

The White Helmets, a humanitarian organisation made up of some 3,000 volunteers, has regularly been the target of disinformation campaigns by the Syrian regime and conspiracy theorists, AFP reported Wednesday (April 18th).

The photos -- which show actors covered in dust, with bloody makeup -- were presented by supporters of the regime as proof that the alleged chlorine and sarin gas attack in the opposition-held town of Douma on April 7th was fake.

But the photos come from the set of a Syrian film called "Revolution Man", supported by the Syrian culture ministry, and were published in February on a Facebook page devoted to the movie.

The investigative site Bellingcat reported the pictures also were shared by the Russian public channel Russia 1, which presented them as proof that the chemical attack was fake.