Video of Portadown hero Delta alerting owner Kyle Murray from K9 Search and Rescue NI of people alive in the rubble of Turkey earthquake
A video of Portadown dog Delta alerting his owner Kyle Murray of people alive in the rubble of Turkey earthquake has emerged, showing the vital role they have played in rescue efforts.
Mr Murray, who with his colleague Ryan Gray and his dog Max, went to Turkey as part of K9 Search and Rescue NI to help find survivors of the earthquake which hit Turkey and Syria last week.
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Amazingly, more than a week after the earthquake which has left more than 46,000 dead, survivors are being found 10 days later.
Ryan and Kyle were both at the site in the Turkish town of Antakya where both Delta and Max as well as another Search Dog Ghost from the SAR team discovered there were people alive in the rubble.
They said on Wednesday, before breakfast, they were called to a site where it was believed people may still be alive.
"Three Search and Rescue Dogs were put to to work. Two from our team and one from SAR Team. All three dogs alerted people to be under the rubble. Digging continued and the dogs were brought back in as rubble was removed, to continue narrowing down the area.
"A Chinese Search and Rescue team arrived onsite with a state of the art device that detects heart beats, under rubble. That machine confirmed a heart beat, a distance and direction.
"Colleagues from Serve On and Evolsar assisted in breaking and breaching the concrete to gain access to those trapped.
"We had to depart the site at 16:30 local time, however have just received word that work is underway to rescue six people including a two year old boy and a three year old girl, brother and sister.”
Kyle revealed that as well as the two children, their mother, a 42-year-old woman, was also rescued from the rubble following indications from Delta and Max that there was life.
K9 Search and Rescue NI is not publicly funded and a GoFundMe page has been set up to help .
Kyle, who is a dog trainer at The Dog Bark in Lurgan, said many of the international search and rescue teams were now leaving as the Turkish authorities move towards a recovery operation and focusing on rebuilding the lives of those who survived.