No Pinoy casualties in Istanbul explosion
THE Embassy and Consulate General in Turkey have not received any report of Filipino casualties following an explosion that killed six people and injured 81 others in Istanbul on Sunday.
Foreign Affairs Assistant Secretary Ma. Teresita Daza said the Philippine Embassy and Consulate General in Turkey will continue to monitor the situation and report any development to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).
The Philippine Embassy in Ankara and the Philippine Consulate General in Istanbul also expressed their condolences to the families of those who lost their lives in the explosion.
A suspect is in police custody, Turkey’s interior ministry said early Monday.
Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay believed it was a terror attack.
Turkish officials believe Kurdish separatists from the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) and the Democratic Union Party (PYD) were most likely behind the deadly suspected bomb attack, Turkey’s interior minister, Suleyman Soylu said.
There are an estimated 3,000 Filipinos in Istanbul. This figure includes household service workers, spouses of Turkish nationals, expatriates or “expats” working in foreign companies, and English teachers.
