DFA checking if Pinoys among Brazil dam collapse victims

DFA Assistant Secretary Elmer Cato told the Philippine News Agency there are about 12,000 Filipinos living in Brazil. (File Photo: Department of Foreign Affairs, Republic of the Philippines/Facebook)

MANILA — The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) is still determining if there are Filipinos among the fatalities of a dam collapse in Brazil.

DFA Assistant Secretary Elmer Cato told the Philippine News Agency there are about 12,000 Filipinos living in Brazil.

“The Philippine Embassy in Brazil is in touch with authorities to determine if there were Filipinos among the casualties in the incident, according to Ambassador Marichu Mauro,” Cato said in a text message Saturday.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of those who lost their lives in this tragedy,” he added.

Scores of people are feared dead with some 200 reported missing after a tailings dam burst at the Feijao iron mine near Brumadinho in the South American nation’s southeastern Minas Gerais state.

News citing Brazil Fire chief Col. Edgar Estevão said around 100 people were rescued during the first hours after the disaster with seven bodies found dead and nine others wounded.

The collapse came following the 2015 Bento Rodrigues dam disaster in Minas Gerais where more than a dozen were killed.