EMERGENCY RESPONDERS RESCUE STRANDED COWS

[Anchor Lead]

A number of cows died or became stranded during a flood in Yangjeong Village in southern Korea. Emergency responders, armed with tranquilizer guns and a crane, came to the rescue of those cows after the water receded.

[Pkg]

​The entire village of Yangjeong in Gurye-gun County was flooded during last weekend's downpour. A number of cattle are spotted floundering in the flooded water. Some are standing precariously on a rooftop. One is barely holding on to a tree. When an emergency responder lassoed the animal and led it up to land, it let out a moo, possibly in gratitude.

[Soundbite] "I saved one. (Moo.)"

The cattle are being rescued from a rooftop. Most of them are weak from having been stranded for more than two days. A crane is used to move them carefully to the ground.

[Soundbite] "Lift up a little in the front."

Since they can fall from the roof, the rescuers use a tranquilizer gun to calm the animals down.

[Soundbite] JANG GWANG-MUN(119 RESCUE TEAM, GOHEUNG FIRE STATION) : "The cattle don't move the way we want them to. It's difficult because they struggle. We rescue them because they're people's assets."

Some were found between folded steel plates... and inside an empty house. The record-breaking precipitation, which caused the entire Yangjeong Village to be flooded, left numerous cattle dead and brought grief to villagers. Gurye-gun County estimates that roughly 1,700 cattle were lost, injured, or killed in the recent torrential rain.