People use #JeSuisChien to honour police dog killed in Paris raid
Haydn Watters | CBC News | Posted: November 18, 2015 9:37 PM | Last Updated: November 18, 2015
Canine honoured with photos of dogs with French flags
Twitter users are mourning the news of a French police dog named Diesel killed in the early morning raids on the Saint-Denis neighbourhood north of Paris.
Police Nationale, France's national police force, confirmed the death of the Belgian Malinois on its Twitter account shortly after the operation ended.
The force said in a series of tweets that the seven-year-old dog was killed "by terrorists" during the raid. Diesel was assisting police in the "indispensable" task of looking for explosives.
The initial tweet spread widely and has been retweeted more than 14,000 times.
News of Diesel's death sparked the use of the hashtags #JeSuisChien and #JeSuisDiesel, with Twitter users paying tribute to the fallen canine.
Both take inspiration from a similar hashtag used in the wake of January's attacks on the Charlie Hebdo offices — #JeSuisCharlie.
Many pointed out how valuable dogs can be in dangerous police operations.
Some paid tribute by tweeting photos of their dogs.
Others draped their dogs in French flags.
One user even paid homage to Anonymous.
The group is fighting against ISIS, which claimed responsibility for the Paris attacks.