No Filipino casualty in Iran quake—DFA

DFA spokesman Assistant Secretary Raul Hernandez. INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—The Department of Foreign Affairs said Wednesday there was no reported Filipino casualty in the 7.8-magnitude earthquake that hit Iran and devastated neighboring Pakistan on Tuesday.

DFA spokesperson Assistant Secretary Raul Hernandez said Wednesday that Philippine missions in Tehran and Abu Dhabi have reported to the home office in Manila that no Filipino was known to have been injured or killed in the quake.

“As of this time, we don’t have any reports of any casualties from the Filipino community in the areas that were affected,” said Hernandez in a press briefing on Wednesday.

“Our embassy in Tehran was also able to talk to a Filipina who was about 600 kilometers from the epicenter and she said that the family was okay and no one was hurt among the Filipinos there,” Hernandez said.

Tuesday’s quake hit a border area in southeast Iran, but the tremor was in other Arab states and even up to India, according to a Reuters report.

Severely affected is neighboring Pakistan, where some 35 people were killed. Authorities are meanwhile having difficulty in accounting for casualties in Iran as quake-affected areas are mostly isolated.