MANILA -- The young boy reported missing after a vehicle plowed into pedestrians in Barcelona, Spain, is half-Filipino, the foreign affairs department said Saturday, Aug. 19.
Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs Sarah Arriola said in a statement Saturday, the 7-year-old boy is the son of a Filipino woman who had been living in Australia for the past three or four years.
Her 43-year-old mother, whose name is not identified by the department, is also one of the seriously injured in Thursday's terror attack.
Arriola said the woman and her son were in Barcelona to attend the wedding of a cousin from the Philippines.
Her British husband, Arriola added, is en route to Barcelona to help find his son. Arriola said the boy was separated from his mother during the attack.
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull asked people to pray for the young boy.
DFA Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano has instructed the Philippine Embassy in Madrid to extend all possible assistance to the child's mother including finding the missing boy.
"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.
Thursday's attack, which involved a van that plowed through crowds gathered in Barcelona's Las Ramblas tourist district, resulted to 13 people dead and more than 100 injured including four Irish citizens with Filipino descent.
Arriola said goverment authorities continue to monitor the condition of a father and his son and reported the success of the surgery performed on the five-year old son who suffered a leg injury as a result of the attack.
"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. (VLA/SunStar Philippines with AP)
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