South Korea to honour dog killed in the line of duty by snake

Police dog handler Ahn Seong-heon (left) with Larry. Pic/AFP

A long-serving South Korean police dog killed in the line of duty - by a snake - will be honoured with a rare ceremony next month in a country where a million of his fellow canines are estimated to be eaten every year.

Larry, a seven-year-old German shepherd, was searching for a missing person on a mountain in North Chungcheong province when the reptile bit him on his left hind leg in July.

He is the first police dog to die "in the line of duty" anywhere in the country, the Daegu Metropolitan Police Agency said. Larry helped officers with 39 felony cases and took part in searches for more than 170 missing people since first being deployed in 2012.

He provided a key clue to an unsolved murder last year after detecting the body of a woman buried 70 centimetres underground near a hiking trail. The carcass was cremated and a funeral service held after Larry's death last month.

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