This morning, Military Region 2 and Lao Cai province mobilized more than 650 people to search for missing victims in Lang Nu village, Phuc Khanh commune, Bao Yen district.
Five service dogs, along with trainers from Border Guard Intermediate School 24, a working group from Hanoi, and 30 officers and soldiers of Lao Cai Border Guard were reinforced this morning. These are the dogs participating in the search for missing people at Rao Trang 3 Hydropower Plant, Defense Economic Group 337, and Tra Leng landslide in 2020.
Rescue forces are concentrating their forces in the area of Lang Nu bridge, about 4 km from the landslide site. This area is low-lying, with many items floating down, and it is predicted that many missing people will be found.
Major General Nguyen Dang Khai, Deputy Commander and Chief of Staff of Military Region 2, requested the military region and Lao Cai province to mobilize the maximum number of forces to search the entire area where the incident occurred, not leaving out any corner or nook.
Three dogs focused their search on a low-lying area 500 meters from Lang Nu Bridge. This area is filled with trash and belongings, where many victims may have been pushed by the flood.
A dog named Otki, 5 years old, rummaged through mud and garbage to find the person. The mud made it difficult to sniff and search.
After several minutes of sniffing, the dog stopped at the suspected location, and soldiers carried shovels to dig to find the victim.
Soldiers dig deep at the location where the sniffer dog suspects the victim is.
While dogs sniffed the landslide areas, some soldiers used stretchers to carry the found bodies outside.
Trainer Nguyen Cong Chuc led the dog to check under a tree that had drifted to a low-lying area near Lang Nu bridge.
Rescue forces gathered at Lang Nu bridge, about 4 km from the landslide site. The service dogs and their trainers had to wade through knee-deep mud.
The victims’ bodies were taken to the outside area by soldiers for identification by their families.
With the help of dogs, on the morning of September 12, authorities found 8 more victims, bringing the total number of deaths to 43. Hundreds of people, vehicles, and equipment continued to search for the 52 missing people.
Trainer uses towel to wipe mud from dog’s nose after hours of searching.
After nearly 3.5 hours of searching upstream, Olat – a 4-year-old dog – was led to the shelter to rest first, waiting for the remaining 4 “teammates”. After about half an hour of being fed and watered, the dogs continued to the scene.
At 10:15, the outside temperature was around 30 degrees Celsius, and the searchers in the downstream area took a break.
Floods and landslides following Typhoon Yagi have caused heavy damage in many localities in the North. As of this morning, authorities have recorded 197 deaths, 128 missing victims, 807 injured, and 188,125 damaged houses. The highest number of deaths was in Lao Cai with 82 people, Cao Bang with 52 people, Yen Bai with 44 people…
