Lupita And Gizi Team From K9 Polri Action In Hatay City Search For Earthquake Victims Turkey

Photo via Antara

JAKARTA - Two K9 dogs from the Baharkam Police Animal Unit arrived in Turkey with the Emergency Medical Team (EMT) sent by the Indonesian Government. They immediately searched for victims affected by the earthquake in Hatay City, Turkey.

"SAR K9 who are members of Basarnas carry out the search for victims of the earthquake disaster in the Hatay City area," said the Head of the 2023 Turkish Humanitarian Mission Task Force (Kasatgas), Brigadier General Pol. Gatot Tri Suryanta in a written statement received in Jakarta, Tuesday, February 14.

K9 Polri joins the EMT TEAM consisting of a joint team of TNI, Basarnas, BNPB and other volunteers arriving at Turkish Adana Airport on Monday night (13/2). Upon arrival, the EMT Team disaster site is planned to stay three days at Adana, because the hopsital field education process takes three days.

According to Gatot, it is not possible to shift aid troops to the field, due to Turkey's post-earthquake situation and conditions, as well as the unpreparedness of tents and support teams in the field.

While in Adana the team is divided into four groups according to their respective agencies. There are also those who join other agencies according to the available place," said Gatot.

There are four places provided for the team, namely the Avrupa Hotel, Adana Hostel, Building A and Building B. The existence of the Indonesian SAR Team has coordinated with the AFAD, as the authority for handling the Turkish earthquake.

The AFAD, said Gatot, has determined the point of placement of personnel from the Indonesian SAR Team and four Polri personnel, along with two K9 who have been shifted to the earthquake search location.

The search for the first day, the SAR team had not found any earthquake victims, because of the difficulty of the search field and the thickness of building materials hampered SAR K9 from detecting victims in the rubble. The search was temporarily stopped because it was approaching night.

"The search results did not find any buried victims," he said.

The National Police deployed 22 personnel in the EMT Team to depart in phase II humanitarian missions. In phase I, the National Police released the departure of four personnel from the K9 Team, namely AKP Mohammad Amali, Bripka Stefanus Anton Mulyono, Bripka Triyono Arbianto and First Brigadier I Ketut Mertayasa.

The four personnel are the handlers of two K9 dogs named Lupita (8) and Gizi (3).

"The four personnel joined as a BNPB team that departed for BNPB which departed using the Hercules C130 aircraft on Saturday (11/2)," said Gatot.

The National Police's Humanitarian Task Force Team for Turkey and Syria will serve a month-long humanitarian mission night. Upon arrival in Turkey, the team was divided into two, namely a team serving in Turkey's Hatay City consisting of a medical and logistical team. Meanwhile, to Syria the logistics team.

"Furthermore, there will still be deliveries of logistical assistance to Syria and Turkey which will be transported by two aircraft in the next stage," said Gatot.