Caramelo, the Brazilian horse stranded on a roof by floods, is rescued after stirring the nation

CANOAS, Brazil (AP) — A Brazilian horse nicknamed Caramelo by social media users garnered national attention after a television news helicopter filmed him stranded on a rooftop in southern Brazil, where massive floods have killed more than 100 people.

About 24 hours after he was first spotted and with people clamoring for his rescue, a team in Brazil’s Rio Grande do Sul state on Thursday successfully removed Caramelo, providing a dose of hope to a beleaguered region.

The brown horse had been balancing on two narrow strips of slippery asbestos for days in Canoas, a city in the Porto Alegre metropolitan area that is one of the hardest-hit areas in the state, much of which has been isolated by floodwaters.

“We found the animal in a debilitated state,” Cap. Tiago Franco, a firefighter from Sao Paulo deployed to lead the rescue, was quoted as saying in a statement from that state’s security secretariat. “We tried to approach in a calm way.”

Firefighters and veterinarians climbed onto the mostly submerged roof, sedated and immobilized the horse and then laid him on an inflatable raft — all 770 pounds of him. The operation involved four inflatable boats and four support vessels, with firefighters, soldiers and other volunteers.

The rescue was broadcast live on television networks that filmed from their helicopters. Social media influencer Felipe Neto sent out updates to his almost 17 million followers on X as the rescue was underway. Afterwards, he offered to adopt him.

"Caramelo, Brazil loves you!!! My God, what happiness," he wrote.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's wife, Janja, posted a video of herself sharing the good news with the Brazilian leader, whispering into his ear at an official event. He smiled, gave a thumbs up and hugged her to him. Rio Grande do Sul's Gov. Eduardo Leite also celebrated the rescue, posting on X: “All lives matter, we stand firm!”

Caramelo is recovering at a veterinary hospital affiliated with a university.

Mariângela Allgayer, a veterinarian and professor at the institution, said Thursday afternoon on social media that he arrived very dehydrated.

He is about 7 years old and, based on his characteristics, was likely used as a draft animal for a cart, Bruno Schmitz, one of the veterinarians who helped rescue and evaluate Caramelo, later told television network GloboNews. He’s also very gentle, Schmitz added, which greatly helped with the administration of sedatives.

“It was a very difficult operation, well beyond the standards even for specialized teams. I think they had never been through something like this before, but thank God everything went well,” he said, then showed Caramelo standing up.

The stranded horse is just one of many animals rescue workers have been striving to save in recent days. Rio Grande do Sul state agents have rescued about 10,000 animals since last week, while those in municipalities and volunteers have saved thousands more, according to the state's housing secretariat.

Animal protection groups and volunteers have been sharing images of difficult rescues and heartwarming scenes of pets reuniting with their owners on social media. One video that went viral showed a man crying inside a boat, hugging his four dogs after rescuers went back to his home to save them.

Heavy rains and flooding in Rio Grande do Sul have killed at least 107 people. Another 136 are reported missing and more than 230,000 have been displaced, according to state authorities. There is no official tally for the number of animals that have been killed or are missing, but local media have estimated the number is in the thousands.

Not far from where Caramelo was rescued, pet owners in Canoas celebrated as they waited in line to get donations at a makeshift animal shelter organized by volunteers.

“So much bad news, but this rescue does give people here some more hope,” said Guilherme Santos, 23, as he sought dog food for his two puppies. “If they can rescue a horse, why not all dogs that are still missing? We can definitely do this.”

Carla Sassi, chairwoman of Grad, a Brazilian nonprofit that rescues animals after disasters, said she is meeting with state government officials in Canoas to discuss emergency measures to rescue pets.

Sá Pessoa reported from São Paulo.

Residents navigate a boat through a street flooded by heavy rains, in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, Thursday, May 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

A resident stands on the balcony of his home partially submerged by flood waters from heavy rains, in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, Thursday, May 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

A resident stands on the balcony of his home partially submerged by flood waters from heavy rains, in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, Thursday, May 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Andre Penner) is

A woman takes a photo of a dog evacuated from an area flooded by heavy rains, at a shelter in Canoas, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, Thursday, May 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

A resident uses a life jacket to cross a flooded street after heavy rain in Canoas, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, Thursday, May 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Carlos Macedo)

A dog, evacuated from an area flooded by heavy rains, barks at a shelter in Canoas, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, Thursday, May 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

A Brazilian soldier carries a dog after rescuing it from a flooded area after heavy rain in Canoas, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, Thursday, May 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Carlos Macedo)

A man supports himself on a car as he tries to return to his flooded apartment building after heavy rain in Canoas, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, Thursday, May 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Carlos Macedo)

A dog, evacuated from an area flooded by heavy rains, is caressed by a volunteer at a shelter in Canoas, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, Thursday, May 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

Residents row past the Gremio Arena surrounded by flood waters from heavy rains, in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, Thursday, May 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

A dog, evacuated from an area flooded by heavy rains, looks out over a gate at a shelter in Canoas, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, Thursday, May 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

A resident stands on the rooftop of his home partially submerged by flood waters from heavy rains, in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, Thursday, May 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

A soldier evacuates a dog from a flooded area after heavy rain in Canoas, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, Thursday, May 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Carlos Macedo)

A dog is evacuated from a flooded area after heavy rain in Canoas, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, Thursday, May 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Carlos Macedo)

A man and his dog reunite at a shelter providing refuge for dogs evacuated from areas flooded by heavy rains, in Canoas, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, Thursday, May 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

Residents and their pets evacuate a flooded area after heavy rain in Sao Sebastiao do Cai, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, Thursday, May 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Carlos Macedo)

A man rides a jet ski on a flooded street after heavy rain in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, Thursday, May 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

A man, cradling a dog, wades through a street flooded by heavy rains in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, Saturday, May 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Carlos Macedo)

Residents evacuate a flooded area after heavy rain in Canoas, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, Thursday, May 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Carlos Macedo)

A soldier evacuates a dog from an area flooded by heavy rains, in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, Friday, May 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Carlos Macedo)

A resident pulls belongings he recovered from his flooded home after heavy rain in Canoas, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, Thursday, May 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Carlos Macedo)

A woman and her pet are rescued from an area flooded by heavy rains in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, Saturday, May 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Carlos Macedo)

People evacuate an area flooded by heavy rains in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, Thursday, May 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

A woman cradling a dog wades through a street flooded after heavy rain in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, Monday, May 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Carlos Macedo)

Cars are surrounded by flooded streets after heavy rain in Canoas, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, Thursday, May 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Carlos Macedo)

A resident carries his pets as he evacuates from a flooded area after heavy rain in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, Tuesday, May 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Carlos Macedo)

The area near the Guaiba River is flooded after heavy rain in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, Thursday, May 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

Firefighters use a raft to transport a horse after rescuing it from a roof, where it was trapped for days amid flooding, after heavy rain in Canoas, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, Thursday, May 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Wesley Santos)

JERUSALEM (AP) — The helicopter crash in which Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, the country’s foreign minister and other officials were killed is likely to reverberate across the Middle East, where Iran’s influence runs wide and deep.

That's because Iran has spent decades supporting armed groups and militants in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and the Palestinian territories, allowing it to project power and potentially deter attacks from the United States or Israel, the sworn enemies of its 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Tensions have never been higher than they were last month, when Iran under Raisi and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei launched hundreds of drones and ballistic missiles at Israel in response to an airstrike on an Iranian Consulate in Syria that killed two Iranian generals and five officers.

Israel, with the help of the United States, Britain, Jordan and others, intercepted nearly all the projectiles. In response, Israel apparently launched its own strike against an air defense radar system in the Iranian city of Isfahan, causing no casualties but sending an unmistakable message.

The sides have waged a shadow war of covert operations and cyberattacks for years, but the exchange of fire in April was their first direct military confrontation.

The ongoing war between Israel and Hamas has drawn in other Iranian allies, with each attack and counterattack threatening to set off a wider war.

It's a combustible mix that could be ignited by unexpected events, such as Sunday's deadly crash.

Israel has long viewed Iran as its greatest threat because of Tehran's controversial nuclear program, its ballistic missiles and its support for armed groups sworn to Israel's destruction.

Iran views itself as the chief patron of Palestinian resistance to Israeli rule, and top officials for years have called for Israel to be wiped off the map.

Raisi, who was a hard-liner viewed as a protégé and possible successor of Khamenei, chastised Israel last month, saying “the Zionist Israeli regime has been committing oppression against the people of Palestine for 75 years.”

“First of all we have to expel the usurpers, secondly we should make them pay the cost for all the damages they have created, and thirdly, we have to bring to justice the oppressor and usurper," he said.

Israel is believed to have carried out numerous attacks over the years targeting senior Iranian military officials and nuclear scientists.

There is no evidence Israel was involved in Sunday's helicopter crash, and Israeli officials have not commented on the incident.

Arab countries on the Persian Gulf have also long viewed Iran with suspicion, a key factor in the decision of the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain to normalize relations with Israel in 2020, and of Saudi Arabia to consider such a move.

Iran has provided financial and other support over the years to the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which led the Oct. 7 attack into Israel that triggered the Gaza war, and the smaller but more radical Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which took part in it. But there is no evidence that Iran was directly involved in the attack.

Since the start of the war, Iran's leaders have expressed solidarity with the Palestinians. Their allies in the region have gone much further.

Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group, Iran's most militarily advanced proxy, has waged a low-intensity conflict with Israel since the start of the Gaza war. The two sides have traded strikes on a near-daily basis along the Israel-Lebanon border, forcing tens of thousands of people on both sides to flee.

So far, however, the conflict has not boiled over into a full-blown war that would be disastrous for both countries.

Iran-backed militias in Syria and Iraq launched repeated attacks on U.S. bases in the opening months of the war but pulled back after U.S. retaliatory strikes for a drone attack that killed three American soldiers in January.

Yemen's Houthi rebels, another ally of Iran, have repeatedly targeted international shipping in what they portray as a blockade of Israel. Those strikes, which often target ships with no apparent links to Israel, have also drawn U.S.-led retaliation.

Iran's influence extends beyond the Middle East and its rivalry with Israel.

Israel and Western countries have long suspected Iran of pursuing nuclear weapons in the guise of a peaceful atomic program in what they see as a threat to non-proliferation everywhere.

Then-President Donald Trump's withdrawal from a landmark nuclear pact between Iran and world powers in 2018, and his imposition of crushing sanctions, led Iran to gradually abandon all the limits placed on its program by the deal.

These days, Iran is enriching uranium to up to 60% purity — near weapons-grade levels of 90%. Surveillance cameras installed by the U.N. nuclear agency have been disrupted, and Iran has barred some of the agency's most experienced inspectors. Iran has always insisted its nuclear program is for purely peaceful purposes, but the United States and others believe it had an active nuclear weapons program until 2003.

Israel is widely believed to be the only nuclear-armed power in the Middle East but has never acknowledged having such weapons.

Iran has also emerged as a key ally of Russia following its invasion of Ukraine, and is widely accused of supplying exploding drones that have wreaked havoc on Ukraine's cities. Raisi himself denied the allegations last fall in an interview with The Associated Press, saying Iran had not supplied such weapons since the outbreak of hostilities in February 2022.

Iranian officials have made contradictory comments about the drones, while U.S. and European officials say the sheer number being used in the war in Ukraine shows that the flow of such weapons has intensified since the war began.

In this photo provided by Moj News Agency, rescue teams' vehicles are seen near the site of the incident of the helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in Varzaghan in northwestern Iran, Sunday, May 19, 2024. A helicopter carrying President Raisi, the country's foreign minister and other officials apparently crashed in the mountainous northwest reaches of Iran on Sunday, sparking a massive rescue operation in a fog-shrouded forest as the public was urged to pray. (Azin Haghighi/Moj News Agency via AP)

An Iranian woman prays for President Ebrahim Raisi in a ceremony at Vali-e-Asr square in downtown Tehran, Iran, Sunday, May 19, 2024. A helicopter carrying President Raisi, the country's foreign minister and other officials apparently crashed in the mountainous northwest reaches of Iran on Sunday, sparking a massive rescue operation in a fog-shrouded forest as the public was urged to pray. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

People pray for President Ebrahim Raisi in a ceremony at Vali-e-Asr square in downtown Tehran, Iran, Sunday, May 19, 2024. A helicopter carrying President Raisi, the country's foreign minister and other officials apparently crashed in the mountainous northwest reaches of Iran on Sunday, sparking a massive rescue operation in a fog-shrouded forest as the public was urged to pray. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

FILE - People gather around a component from an intercepted ballistic missile that fell near the Dead Sea in Israel, Saturday, April 20, 2024. The apparent crash of a helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, the country's foreign minister and other top officials is likely to reverberate across the Middle East. Tensions have soared since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, and Israel and Iran directly traded fire for the first time ever in April. (AP Photo/Itamar Grinberg, File)

FILE - Iranian worshippers chant slogans during an anti-Israeli gathering after Friday prayers in Tehran, Iran, Friday, April 19, 2024. The apparent crash of a helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, the country's foreign minister and other top officials is likely to reverberate across the Middle East. Tensions have soared since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, and Israel and Iran directly traded fire for the first time ever in April. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)