A INGLETON man is at the forefront of efforts to find survivors in the Turkish earthquake disaster.

Father-of-five Phil Haigh, 50, is a member of Canis, a search and rescue voluntary organisation, which was set up to train disaster search dogs to work in damaged or collapsed buildings.

About 40 specialists including Phil, who will lead Canis' first international deployment, have been looking for signs of life amid the rubble since the arriving in north west Turkey within 24 hours of the quake.

Phil said farewell to his wife, Alison, and set off for the quake's epicentre, Izmit, on Wednesday along with his German Shepherd dog, Denke.

Phil, who is a teacher at Wennington School, was one of the dog handlers who helped at the Lockerbie air disaster more than 10 years ago.

The number of dead from Tuesday's earthquake has been recorded at nearly 4,000 with 16,000 injured.

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