A member of the Granada Policía Local was injured during a rescue operation to save a young Belgian woman who was trapped on a ledge after falling down a ravine in the Jesús del Valle area.

It started in the afternoon when two young lasses of that nationality were going for a walk along the upper part of the Darro river. The two girls had become separated when one of them slipped on muddy ground and slid off down the ravine wall, only coming to rest after she had managed to grab hold of a protruding root and found footing on a ledge.

She called her companion, who then ran off back down to the city to raise the alarm at the local police station. Everybody immediately got their act together and members of the Policía Local and the fire service set off, accompanied by tracker dogs – as a quirk of fate would have it, Belgian Shepherds.

The dog handler came across the girl first, who was busy enjoying a hysterical fit, but who nevertheless interrupted this energy-consumptive activity upon seeing her rescuers.

The dashing hero and his mutt climbed down to where the girl was hanging on, but even before he could ask for a date, the part of the ledge on which he and the dog were balancing gave way.

The policeman plunged down to the bottom – a drop of around seven metres – followed by the dog, which managed the descent with exasperating ease.

In the meantime the rest of the rescue team got a rope down to the girl and hauled her up, plying her with requests for her telephone number and a date, before going back for their fallen comrade and accompanying dog.