Hero Dog Diesel's Replacement Handed To France

A puppy offered to France as a replacement for a police dog killed in an anti-terror raid has been handed to the French ambassador in Moscow.

The two-month-old German Shepherd called Dobrynya has been given by the Russians in a show of solidarity following the massacre in Paris last month.

Dobrynya, who has been living at a police dog centre in the Moscow region, is named after a medieval Russian knight famed for his strength, chivalry and courage.

He replaces seven-year-old Belgian Shepherd Diesel who was killed on 18 November during an operation against jihadists holed up in a Paris apartment.

The raid followed the 13 November attacks that left 130 people dead.

During the later operation, one of the suspected ringleaders of the attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, was killed in a shootout along with two others.

Paris police chief Jean-Michel Fauvergue told French newspaper Le Parisien that the seven-year-old dog "probably saved the lives of policemen who were about to enter".

After Diesel's death the hashtag #JeSuisChien spread across Twitter in tribute.

The puppy was presented to ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert at the French embassy in Moscow.

He will travel to France next month, when the quarantine process will be completed. There will also be a welcome ceremony in Paris.

French interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve wrote in a letter to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Kolokoltsev: "The gift from Russian police dog-lovers to their French counterparts ... is a very strong and exceptional symbolic gesture on your part."