
(ECNS) -- Hefei police in Anhui Province successfully located an 89-year-old missing person within just four hours utilizing a police dog-drone coordinated approach in rural mountainous terrain with 85 percent vegetation coverage.
The Shulu Police Station in Hefei National High-tech Industry Development Zone received a report about an elderly man who had failed to return without carrying any communication devices.
Family members stated the senior had gone for an afternoon walk alone before losing contact.
Given the complex terrain and insufficient surveillance coverage in the missing area, local police immediately activated an integrated air-ground joint search approach, dispatching a police dog as well as a few drones to the scene.
At the rescue site, drones equipped with infrared thermal imaging systems were deployed to conduct comprehensive scans of high-risk areas, including wild ponds and steep slopes.
Simultaneously, the police dog tracked the elderly's scent.
The police ultimately located the exhausted elderly man at a steep slope 2.3 kilometers away from where he had gone missing. Officer Luo Shuai trekked nearly one kilometer through thorn-covered, steep terrain to safely transport him to an ambulance. Medical examinations confirmed the elderly man was in stable condition.
(By Zhang Dongfang)