The Foreign Ministry refuted, on Thursday morning, reports that an Egyptian woman living in New York had died in Sandy, one of the worst storms to hit the US in decades.
Egypt’s General Consul in New York Yousef Zadah stressed that neither the consulate nor American authorities had received any reports of Egyptian deaths.
The false news of Egyptian May Saeed’s death had been circulated online along with a photo of her graduation.
“The Consulate made contacts with the US State Department, police stations in the states of New York and New Jersey and the emergency department. They all reported that there is no information about the deaths of Egyptian nationals,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Facebook.
Despite the continued state of emergency and the difficulties preventing consulate workers from reaching their offices, Zadah said they are monitoring the situation from within the consulate.
There have been no calls to the emergency telephone number, posted to the consulate website before the storm hit the east coast earlier this week, from Egyptian citizens requesting help or reporting storm-related incidents.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
