ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Four young men drowned on Monday morning in Bardarash’s Khazir River, followed by two other individuals in Halabja’s Pris Pond, with the Kurdistan Region’s civil defense urging citizens to refrain from swimming in bodies of water in the Region that are “not suitable for swimming.”

“Unfortunately, two citizens drowned in the Pris Pond in Halabja province this evening, one born in 2003 and the other victim born in 1994,” said the Kurdistan Region’s General Directorate of Civil Defense on Monday evening, noting that the incident was the second of such nature on the same day.

Akre’s civil defense directorate announced earlier on Monday morning that four people, born between 2003 and 2008, perished in the Khazir River near the Qaimawa village at 7 am.

Incidents of drowning in the Kurdistan Region’s bodies of water have time and again made headlines as a result of the unpredictable nature of the waves and currents, coupled with the Region’s steep cliffs.

Seven-year-old Arvan Sihad, who drowned in the Great Zab River in early July, and Avesta Yousef, a 27-year-old woman from Erbil who fell into a river in Mergasor during a picnic in early April, are among recent cases that have gained prominence on social media after search efforts to find their bodies yielded no results.

The Region’s civil defense urged citizens to “avoid swimming,” warning that “the nature of the waters in the Kurdistan Region [make them] not suitable for swimming, and your safety is more important than anything else."