Faithful canines, technical search aid NDRF in rescue op

New Delhi: On Wednesday, the men in grey-blue and their two faithful labradors came to the rescue of persons were trapped inside debris of a four-storey building which collapsed in Sawan park area in north west Delhi.

Around 45 personnel from two teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) used the latest special gadgets and tools to carry out a technical search to trace the victims trapped underneath the debris.

In a press statement, the NDRF said it retrieved four bodies (two woman and four children), which were sent to the hospital.

"Labradors helped us in the rescue operation, they helped us in locating where there was a possibility of trapped victims," said inspector Dharmendra Choubey, adding that the rescue operation was called off around 6.30 pm, after making sure no was one trapped.

He added that there were no problem during the operation. "We have a lookout man, who only keeps an eye on the structure. If there is any danger during the rescue work, he informs us," Choubey said.

Between 2017-18, NDRF has carried out over 40 rescue operations in Delhi-NCR, during which more than 20 bodies were retrieved and five persons were rescued. Data between January 1, 2017, to July 23 this year, accessed by Millennium Post, claimed that the Force conducted rescue operations in 31 cases of drowning and missing persons, from where 11 bodies were found and one person was rescued.

Moreover, in ten cases collapsed structures, 17 bodies were retrieved. The Force also evacuated over one lakh of persons to safety.