Durban - SAPS K9 sniffer dogs Donna and Optimus have been hailed national heroes after they found an 80-year-old woman alive in the Turkish rubble almost 8 days after the deadly earthquake.
More than 29 600 people in Türkiye and 4 500 in Syria have been killed in the quakes, officials in the countries said.
On Monday, there was a glimmer of hope as the woman was found.
According to Gift of the Givers director Imtiaz Sooliman, this area had not been searched.
"By bringing in the SAPS K9 sniffer dogs, Gift of Givers, together with the Omani team, located the elderly person in the rubble. The person was sent by ambulance to hospital.
“Congratulations to the team for pulling someone out alive several days after the earthquake," he said.
“When we work together for the purpose of human beings, there is always success.”
Brigadier Vimla Moodley, head of the K9 team, told IOL a total of five sniffer dogs are part of the rescue operations, and the teams are deployed in two groups.
“One with the Omani group and the other with the Turkish.
“The two K9 search and rescue dogs with the Omani group had searched a building that was being excavated and detected a live person.”
According to Moodley, it was Donna, who has been with the SAPS for five years, that discovered the scent, and Optimus who confirmed it.
Optimus has been a sniffer dog for 6 years.
Moodley said SAPS dogs are trained to search and detect both live human and dead person's scent.
“Dogs are released by the handler to search, and they indicate by scratching, sniffing and pointing out. Donna physically starts digging.”
IOL