France’s National Police announced that one of its police dogs named Diesel was mortally wounded in the raids on the suspected apartment of one of the terrorism suspects in last Friday’s attack in Paris.
Security forces carried out the operation at the Saint-Denis apartment in the Seine-Saint-Denis region Wednesday.
Police and people inside the apartment had a shootout in which two alleged terrorists were killed and seven people were taken into custody.
Six of the wounded included five police officers and a passerby.
Another victim, believed to be the girlfriend of one of the suspects, blew herself up with a suicide bomb.
One of those killed was Diesel, a 7-year-old police dog who was described as drawing his last breath at the foot of his master.
Diesel entered into the apartment to check for explosives and was killed.
News of his death sparked a wave of reaction on social media with the hashtag JeSuisChien, a hashtag the originator said was intended to be ironic. Some criticized the JeSuis solidarity movement which started last year with the Charlie Hebdo shootings as being too much and focusing on the wrong victims in the light of so many people killed since last Friday’s attack.
But others took the hashtag seriously.
Hommage entre chiens A Diesel… #JeSuisChien pic.twitter.com/9TQud5QXqZ
— M@NU ™ (@ManuBresset) November 18, 2015
In a tweet, the National Police said:
“Assault and explosives dogs are indispensable in research missions #Raid operators”
Les chiens d'assaut et de recherche d'explosifs: indispensables dans les missions des opérateurs du #RAID pic.twitter.com/vb5lGjnwjO
— Police Nationale (@PNationale) November 18, 2015
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