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Six dogs, three of them part of a search and rescue team, had to have emergency veterinary care after eating items toxic to dogs in a forest park.

The dogs - three rescue dogs and three family pets - were being walked in Hillsborough Forest Park on Friday.

Ryan Gray, of K9 Search and Rescue, said piles of chocolate, almonds and grapes had been left out in the forest.

"When we're talking piles, you'd fill binliners [with the amount]," he said.

"Pretty much things that are incredibly toxic to the dogs."

He said two of the dogs had consumed enough of the items to have killed them.

He said the quick reactions of the two handlers with them had saved them as they were rushed to the nearest vet.

The two which ate the most had to be induced to vomit.

"I think they'll be released tonight and then it'll be a case that they'll have to go back for tests to check their liver function," he said.

"But really it was only the reactions of the handlers noticing them and what they had ate and getting them to a vet's in Hillsborough, it was literally the closest vet they could get to."

Mr Gray said he could not say whether the items had been left on purpose for dogs, but it was worrying,

"Even if they didn't know, if we're edging on the scale of giving the benefit of the doubt and you think they'd leave the grapes and the almonds out for the birds, you wouldn't leave bars of chocolate out for the birds," he said.

"It was different piles of stuff everywhere and hidden under stuff as well."

K9 Search and Rescue, which is based in north Down, has been involved in dozens of searches for missing people in Northern Ireland and has also assisted in the Republic of Ireland.

In February it was involved in search and rescue operations in Turkey after a major earthquake struck the country.