In what could be considered as the worst attack to hit Spain in the recent decade which left more than 100 people injured, a Filipino boy is among the 14 reported dead, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) announced on Monday.
“According to Chargé d’Affaires Emmanuel Fernandez, the Philippine Embassy in Madrid was informed of the boy’s demise by his family after his father positively identified his remains,” ABS-CBN News quoted Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano as saying.
The 7-year-old boy was reported missing after he was separated from his mother when a van plowed through pedestrians in Las Ramblas tourist district on Thursday, August 17.
According to Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs Sarah Arriola, the Australia-based Filipina mother and son were in Barcelona to attend a relative’s wedding when the incident happened.
“The mother remains in the intensive care unit of a local hospital after undergoing surgery for fractures in both legs and one arm that she sustained in the incident.,” the DFA said.
The attack also left members of an Irish-Filipino family injured. Norman Potot, 45, is still under observation due to a head injury and bleeding in his kidney while his 5-year old son is recuperating after surgery was performed on his injured leg.
The family, among other victims of the Barcelona attack, was visited by Spain’s King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia in the hospital, the Irish Times reported.
Credit: ABS-CBN News, Irish Times
