London police say a couple was successfully located and rescued from an embankment on Friday thanks in part to the app “what3words.”
Police say a woman called 911 at roughly 12:40 p.m. Friday to report that she and her husband “were stuck on an embankment near the ice, in the area of Tigerlily and Riverbend roads.”
According to police, the woman was able to use the application to give an exact location to the 911 dispatchers.
Police, fire, and paramedics were sent to the area and the couple was rescued at roughly 1 p.m., with no injuries reported.
In the what3words app, developers created three-metre-by-three-metre squares across the world and each square contains a unique, three-word combination to provide a specific location.
London police say the app doesn’t require data as long as it was already downloaded.
“The London Police Service recently adopted the new technology, and it provided great assistance in locating and providing immediate assistance to the couple who called 9-1-1 today,” police said in a statement.
“We are urging members of the public to download this free technology, as it helped out tremendously in today’s incident.”
The app has grown in popularity among emergency services in Ontario, with OPP adopting the technology in December 2020.
— with files from Global News’ Nick Westoll.