JEDDAH: The sniffer dog was looking for dead bodies, but instead it found a living man trapped beneath the flotsam of the Nov. 25 flash flooding in Jeddah.

A Civil Defense officer told Arab News on Sunday that on Dec. 4 an African man was rescued after surviving 10 days pinned under the debris of a collapsed building in Al-Sawaid district of Quwaizah, one of the hardest hit districts.

The officer also said that they had found the body of another victim, who had died recently. He did not mention when that body was found, but said it was discovered near the Siddique Center of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice in Quwaizah

“We were unable to save his life because of the piles of debris,” he added. “It was quite obvious that he died recently, as no nasty smell was coming out like that from other bodies.”

Brig. Muhammad Al-Qarni, spokesman of Civil Defense and director of the disaster management, said the number of people who are still missing has been reduced to 41. The official death toll stands at 120.

Al-Qarni said more limbs were found in the flooded areas during the search operations. Efforts are being made to determine whether they belonged to people who died in the floods or some other reason. Al-Qarni called on relatives of missing people to go to health administration to cooperate in identifying bodies in DNA tests.

He said Jeddah Gov. Prince Mishaal bin Majed ordered all hospitals in the city to inform any death related to flood and the bodies handed to relatives for burial before the counting of dead bodies began.

Al-Qarni said 11 search teams, including 100 divers, continue to look for bodies.

He denied charges that the Civil Defense was unprepared to handle the crisis. Al-Qarni said immediately after the flood hit the area a crisis committee was set up under the Jeddah governor and all government departments were ordered to cooperate in rescue operations. More than 1,300 heavy machines and thousands of security and Civil

Defense personnel were sent for various rescue and search operations, he added.