SupportCY volunteers take part in missing persons training

The pooling of forces and cooperation in missing persons cases enhances the effectiveness of the search, especially where such missing individuals are elderly, young children or those in poor health.

This was the main message of the two-day, overseas instructor-led training, organised by the SupportCY volunteer corps, in collaboration with the police, fire and ambulance services.

The training included profiling of special-category missing persons, search and tracking techniques, ways of approach, as well as a large-scale exercise in a hilly area.

Participants in the joint training were the Cyprus Police, the Fire Service and SupportCY members, with the Ambulance Service also taking part in the field exercise.

The objective of the exercise was to locate a missing child with autism, lost in a hilly area of Nicosia district. All aforementioned services were mobilised to locate him, aided by the presence of police dogs. Utilising drones in addition to the efforts of the search teams, the objective was achieved successfully, with the ‘child’ located in a short time and returned safely to his family.

The Bank of Cyprus’ SupportCY network participated in the exercise with a total of 42 volunteers from all regional chapters, in collaboration with the Missing Persons Unit, the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Unit (Drones), the Emergency Medical Unit, the Administrative Support Unit and the Rapid Response Unit.

Rounding out the exercise, SupportCY’s action and mobilisation plans were thereafter evaluated.