Firefighters rescued a golden retriever named Romeo from a pile of rubble nine days after a 6.2 magnitude earthquake rocked central Italy.
Firefighters lifted the dog out of the remains of his owners’ house after they heard barking noises under the rubble, AFP reported.
Romeo appeared unscathed as he was lifted out of the debris and was reunited with his owners, who did not think he survived the earthquake.
AFP reported Romeo’s owners were sleeping on the second floor of their house when the earthquake struck the village of San Lorenzo a Flaviano before dawn on August 24.
His owners managed to escape to safety, but Romeo was trapped under the debris.
They stayed behind for a few hours to look for Romeo before they had to give up their search to be evacuated for their own safety.
Nine days later, the owners came back to what was left of their house with a group of firefighters to recover important belongings.
When the owners called out Romeo’s name, the dog responded with barking, and firefighters were able to locate him under the rubble.
“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 told the ANSA news agency.
“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.”
Romeo is not the first animal to be rescued in Italy’s earthquake.
Another dog trapped in rubble was rescued from the earthquake in Italy shortly after the quake, according to The Telegraph.
Reuters reported that a cat named Joy was rescued from the rubble six days after the earthquake.