Who took the iconic Napalm Girl image? World Press Photo says it’s not clear

World Press Photo said Friday it removed US-Vietnamese photographer Nick Ut’s name as the person credited for one of history’s most iconic pictures, the Vietnam war image “Napalm Girl”, amid doubts over its authorship.

The organisation, which awards one of the world’s most prestigious photojournalism prizes, said it carried out its own investigation into the haunting 1972 photo – which shows a nine-year-old girl fleeing naked from a napalm strike – after the premiere of the film The Stringer.

The documentary chronicles an investigation into rumours that the image, which helped change global perceptions of the US war in Vietnam, was taken by a little-known local freelancer, not Ut, the Associated Press staff photographer who won a Pulitzer Prize for the photo.

World Press Photo, which awarded its Photo of the Year prize to Ut in 1973 for the black-and-white image – whose official title is “The Terror of War” – said the film had “prompted deep reflection” at the organisation.

After investigating from January to May, it determined that “based on analysis of location, distance, and the camera used on that day”, two other photographers “may have been better positioned to take the photograph than Nick Ut”.

“World Press Photo has suspended the attribution of ‘The Terror of War’ to Nick Ut, from today,” it said in a statement.

“It is possible that the author of the photograph will never be fully confirmed. The suspension of the authorship attribution stands unless it is proved otherwise.”