Another Iraqi tourist drowns in Kurdistan Region

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) - Another Iraqi tourist drowned in the Kurdistan Region Wednesday afternoon while visiting its capital’s main attraction.

Arid Muhammad, a young Iraqi boy from Ramadi, in the province of Anbar, was visiting Erbil’s famous Sami Abdulrahman Park when he fell into its iconic lake.

Two of his relatives reportedly jumped into the water in a rescue attempt but had to be saved and pulled out of the water themselves.

“I heard screaming, and when I arrived at the scene, the boy’s body was nowhere to be found; it had sunk to the bottom of the lake,” a witness told Kurdistan 24.

Two men, who were nearby, took a boat and headed out into the water to attempt to find the boy, who was completely submerged in the lake’s viscous water.

While they managed to quickly find the body, he was already unconscious. 

“After five minutes of looking for his body, we found him,” one of the men involved in the rescue efforts said.

The head of Sami Abdulrahman Park offered his condolences to the family of the boy, pointing out that signs around the lake warn of the risks of falling into the water.

However, those present at the accident still expressed strong criticism.

“I call upon the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to place two lifeguards at the lake,” demanded one of the rescuers. “This is not the first [drowning] incident at this park.”

Others complained of the fence guarding the lake needs to be higher and that the edges are quite slippery.

The boy was rushed to the West Erbil Hospital, but their efforts to resuscitate the boy were unsuccessful.

Days earlier, news of a Kurdish man drowning while attempting to save an Iraqi woman in Kurdistan’s Choman River made headlines across the country.