Story By: Jana Tomovska, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News 

Video Credit: CEN/Vigili del Fuoco Bologna

This is the triumphant moment Italian firefighters pull to safety one of two dogs rescued after they were trapped in a narrow underground tunnel near an old mine for 36 hours.

The two pooches, named Muscolo and Orfeo, were on a boar hunt when they became trapped in the underground cavity in Baragazza, Castiglione dei Pepoli, in the Bolognese Apennines in northern Italy.

After the dogs became trapped the local fire service worked with search and rescue teams and the Alpine-River Department through the night for 36 hours to try to rescue them. Two experts from the Brigade of Bergamo Command, Stanislao Liuzzi and Marco Bramante, were also sent to the scene.

Local media report thermal imaging cameras were used to check on the dogs.

A helicopter and an excavator were used in the operation with rescuers aware the dogs were alive because they could hear them yelping. They also monitored them with thermal imaging cameras.

In the video, the rescuers can be seen using the excavator and drills to try to reach the dogs before one of the pooches can be seen being lifted to safety.

Local media report the dogs had slipped into an underground cavity consisting of waste material from a former mine from the 1920s.

Both were eventually pulled to safety.

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