People use #JeSuisChien to honour police dog killed in Paris raid

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 BelgianMalinois on its Twitter account shortly after the operation ended.

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The force said in a series of tweets thatthe seven-year-old dogwas killed "by terrorists" during the raid. Dieselwasassisting police in the "indispensable" task of looking forexplosives.

The initial tweet spread widely and has beenretweetedmore than 14,000 times.

News of Diesel's death sparked the use of the hashtags #JeSuisChien and #JeSuisDiesel, withTwitter users paying tributeto the fallen canine.

Both takeinspiration from a similar hashtag used in the wake of January'sattacks on the Charlie Hebdo offices #JeSuisCharlie.

Many pointed out how valuable dogs can be in dangerous police operations.

Some paidtribute bytweeting photos of their dogs.

Othersdrapedtheir dogs in French flags.

One user even paid homage toAnonymous.

The group is fightingagainst ISIS, which claimed responsibility for the Paris attacks.

Others did not think the hashtag is appropriate...

...particularly given the severity of the various deadly events of the past few days.

But most were justhappy Diesel was getting some recognition too.