Police dog dies in leap from roof of unit's headquarters

A police dog died in a fall from the roof of the dog unit's headquarters in Sheung Shui yesterday.

Cool, a 22-month-old Belgian shepherd, or malinois, was warming up ahead of a training session when he jumped over a metre high wall enclosing the third-floor roof, and fell to the ground.

The dog, worth HK$50,000 and not yet in active service, was taken to a veterinary clinic in Tai Po, where he was confirmed dead.

A police spokesman said the department would review yesterday's accident.

Cool's trainer and two colleagues who brought the dog to the clinic were "very upset", according to a police source.

The death brought to three the number of police dogs to have died since the beginning of April.

On May 20, a three-year-old malinois named Dax ran away from its handler, a 43-year-old senior constable who was off-duty, during a walk on the Hoi Yu Street waterfront in Quarry Bay.