CHINA (Reuters) – More than 2,500 professional rescuers and 25 sniffer dogs are working against time to search for 93 persons still missing in a landslide in southwest China’s Sichuan Province.
One-year-old sniffer dog named Gege is one of those.
This is the dog’s first time to participate in a rescue operation.
Once he finds possible signs of life, Gege, the dog’s handlers said, would bark at rescuers.
Sniffer dogs like Gege are working for more than ten hours a day, from 07:00 to 18:00, such that the work has made them very tired.
“Normally there are no red streaks in its eyes. Dogs are like people. It’s quite painful for them not being able to fall asleep when they are very sleepy. There is too much noise here,” said Zhao Shikang, firefighter from Liangshan detachment of Sichuan Fire Corps.
The landslide engulfed 62 homes in Xinmo Village in Maoxian County in the Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture of Aba Saturday morning, blocking a 2-kilometer section of a river and burying 1,600 meters of road. Three survivors were found and more than 320 people evacuated.
Ten people have been confirmed dead and 15 people have been taken off the list of missing as they were not in Xinmo Village when the disaster struck.
Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday ordered all-out rescue efforts for those buried by the landslide. Xi has ordered the State Council, China’s Cabinet, to send a work team to the site. Premier Li Keqiang also ordered more rescue efforts and an examination of further geological risks.