PHOTOS: Mushroom harvesting goes wrong as 12 poisoned in Kurdistan Region’s Ranya

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – At least a dozen people have been hospitalized in the Kurdish town of Ranya in Sulaimani Province after consuming poisonous wild mushrooms, a health official said on Wednesday.

“Twelve people were immediately transferred to the hospital from mushroom poisoning,” Taha Mohammed, the Director-General of Health in Ranya, told Kurdistan 24.

“They are from two families, mostly cousins.”

He mentioned that their condition requires them to remain under medical supervision at the hospital for a few days.

The poisoning victims, some of which are children, are from both genders and all ages, the Administrator of Ranya hospital, Farman Ahmed, told Kurdistan 24.

The Kurdistan Region is home to many wild mushrooms, and residents of rural areas commonly go mushroom-picking during the rainy season. 

Editing by Nadia Riva

(Additional reporting by Aras Amin)