Filipino mother injured, separated from son in Barcelona attack—DFA

A picture taken on August 18, 2017 shows tributes to the victims of the attack of Barcelona set up at the Font de Canaletes in Barcelona as they pay tribute to the victims of the Barcelona attack, a day after a van plowed into the crowd, killing 14 persons and injuring over 100.
Drivers have plowed on August 17, 2017 into pedestrians in two quick-succession, separate attacks in Barcelona and another popular Spanish seaside city, leaving 14 people dead and injuring more than 100 others. Some eight hours later in Cambrils, a city 120 kilometers south of Barcelona, an Audi A3 car rammed into pedestrians, injuring six civilians — one of them critical — and a police officer, authorities said. AFP

A Filipino woman from Australia was seriously injured and got separated from her son in a terrorist attack in Barcelona, Spain, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) confirmed on Saturday.

The seven-year-old boy got separated from his mother during the attack on Thursday and has been missing since then, the DFA said.

“It saddens us to inform the public that a kababayan (countryman) of ours from Australia and her seven-year-old son are among the victims of last Thursday’s terrorist attack in Barcelona,” Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano said.

“I have directed our Embassy in Madrid to proceed to Barcelona and extend all possible assistance to our injured kababayan and to exert all efforts to help find her son,” Cayetano added.

Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs Sarah Arriola said the 43-year-old Filipina is married to a British man and has been based in Australia for the past three to four years. She and her son were in Barcelona to attend the wedding of a cousin from the Philippines when the incident happened.

Arriola said Philippine Honorary Consul in Barcelona Jordi Puig Roches has visited the victim in the hospital and the DFA is already in touch with her relatives in the Philippines.

“We will continue to exert all efforts until we are sure that there are no other Filipinos among the victims of this dastardly act,” Arriola said.

She said the Philippine Embassy and the Honorary Consulate are working closely with members of the Filipino community in checking if there are other Filipinos who were among those who were killed or injured in the attack.

Thursday’s attack, which involved a van that plowed through crowds gathered in Barcelona’s Las Ramblas tourist district, also injured members of a Filipino-Irish family. IDL

READ: PH condemns Barcelona attack; 4 Filipinos among injured