A golden retriever called Romeo has been pulled from the rubble of Italy's earthquake, more than nine days after the collapse of his owners' house.
Video released by the fire department showed firefighters freeing the dog yesterday from the ruins of a building in Amatrice, where 231 perished in the earthquake.
His owners were sleeping on the second floor of their house when the earthquake struck before dawn on 24 August.
They managed to get out but Romeo, who was sleeping on the first floor, was trapped inside. After searching for him for hours, they were eventually evacuated from the village for their own safety.
Romeo the dog rescued from the rubble 10 days after Italian earthquake https://t.co/GTSArtr8Ld pic.twitter.com/XXfyrlS38V
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) September 3, 2016
All hope of finding Romeo alive appeared to have disappeared until yesterday evening, when the couple returned to their home in the company of a group of firefighters assigned to help them recover key belongings from the rubble.
Almost as soon as they came into the village, Romeo heard their voices and began barking.
"We immediately began moving masonry from where the barking was coming from and incredibly we got to him and he was in pretty good condition," one of the firemen said.
"Luckily some beams had fallen in a way that they were holding up the weight of everything above them leaving Romeo with a little niche that he was able to survive in."
Earlier this week a cat called Joy was rescued from the wreckage of another house in Amatrice, six days after the disaster.
