Rescue mission Swiss search dog team helps after flood disaster in Valencia

The Swiss rescue dog organization Redog sent a search dog team to the flood disaster area in the Spanish region of Valencia on Wednesday. Their task will be to locate people who are still missing, the organization announced.

Three search dogs, each with a dog handler, as well as an operations manager and a specialist in technical tracking with a search camera will help in the search for missing persons in the flood area, a media spokeswoman told the Keystone-SDA news agency.

It was still unclear on Wednesday exactly how long the operation would last. Other search dog teams from other organizations with whom Redog is working are also on site, the spokesperson added. These include a team from Freiburg im Breisgau in Germany.

Redog was deployed at the invitation of the local authorities in the Valencia region. Three weeks after the devastating rainfall, landslides and flooding, eleven people are still missing there.

Criticism due to slow start of aid

According to the latest assessment by the central government, the natural disaster has claimed at least 227 lives. 219 bodies were recovered in Valencia alone. There were eight fatalities in the neighboring regions of Castilla-La Mancha and Andalusia. In some places, it had rained as much in a few hours as it usually does in a whole year.

The disaster caused a great deal of resentment due to the slow start of aid. On November 9 - a week and a half after the disaster - around 130,000 people took to the streets of the regional capital Valencia to demand the resignation of Valencia's head of government, Carlos Mazón.

SDA