RESCUE WORKERS DEPLOY DRONES TO SAVE LIVES

[Anchor Lead]

In some areas streams and rivers rose over their banks to inundate entire villages. Rescue workers had to deploy drones in areas where access to flooded areas was blocked by the strong water current. Emergency supplies were also delivered to save lives. Here's the story.

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​A man waves his hands, desperately asking for help. He's the father of a seven-year-old who was facing a life-threatening situation due to asthma. There was no way to find emergency medicine for the child, as the town became isolated after a river broke its banks. The last hope was using a drone to deliver medicine. Rescue workers attached a respiratory drug to the drone, which delivered it to the child's father.

[Soundbite] (CHILD'S PARENT) : "It was beyond imagination. I thought they would send a helicopter to transport my child."

The drone crossed the rapidly overflowing Geumgang River and flew about one and a half kilometers to deliver the drug.

[Soundbite] PARK KUK-JIN(YEONGDONG FIREFIGHTER) : "We happened to have a drone at that moment. We decided to try it out, so we attached a bronchodilator to it."

Another life was saved by a drone in a mountainous village in Inje, Gangwon-do Province, where residents became stranded because of the torrential rain. Rescue workers flew a drone to send medicine to a person having a heart attack. Drones also played a pivotal role in searching for missing people in dangerous areas. Only ten minutes are needed for a single drone to thoroughly comb through an area that would take a whole hour to search by 100 rescue workers.

[Soundbite] CHUNG JI-DAE(CHUNGCHEONGBUK-DO PROVINCIAL POLICE AGENCY) : "The drone is using its zoom and thermal camera functions to thoroughly search areas that cannot be seen by the human eye."

Last Saturday, a video of the collapsed bank of the Seomjingang River taken by a drone was broadcast in breaking news of the recent floods. Drones equipped with state-of-the-art sensors and features are expected to be deployed in more difficult rescue operations in the future.