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Spain's military emergency unit (UME), activated since Tuesday afternoon as a consequence of the devastating effects of the 'Dana' flooding in Valencia, has activated the units specifically dedicated to search and rescue tasks in urban areas, military sources have confirmed.
This involves the deployment of the unit's canine team with the mobilisation of 24 "highly specialised" dogs, drones and the so-called USAR teams, which are certified by the UN and have been used in recent years to help victims of major earthquakes around the world, such as in Mexico, Ecuador, Haiti and Morocco.
The UME dogs, considered as "four-legged soldiers", are an essential element in emergencies. They are trained to save lives or locate bodies thanks to their intuition, autonomy, and endurance. It is estimated that a trained dog can search an area of 100 square metres in five minutes, while a human equipped for the task would need at least 45 minutes.
The dogs of the canine team come from three different sources: from the military veterinary centre of the ministry of defence, from the military breeding and remount centre in Ávila, and from donations from private individuals.
Two of the dog teams will be in charge of searching for five people in the Segura riverbed near Letur (Albacete), and the rest will go to the Valencia region.
The UME has battalions in Madrid, León, Zaragoza, Valencia and Seville, as well as a detachment in Tenerife. In each team there are at least six operational dogs, four prepared to search for live people and two specialised in searching for corpses. The minister for territorial policy, Ángel Víctor Torres, said on Thursday afternoon that there are "dozens and dozens" of people missing. He also announced that the military deployment in the 'ground zero' zones in the province of Valencia will be reinforced on Friday from 1,200 to 1,700 troops.
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