Kurdish photographer falls 10 meters after lightning strike on Halabja mountain

HALABJA — A Kurdish photographer was injured Thursday after lightning struck a rock near him on a mountain in Halabja governorate, forcing him to jump to avoid falling debris and plunge nearly 10 meters onto rocks below.

Hogr Ahmed, 23, had gone alone to the Shinrwe mountain area around 5 p.m. to document rain and lightning over Halabja. When a bolt struck a nearby rock and split it in two, he said he had no choice but to throw himself clear. “I fell badly and my head struck a large rock, and I lost consciousness,” he told 964media.

He remained unconscious for five to six minutes before rain helped revive him. Injured and in pain, he made his way to the paved road and called friends, who arrived on motorcycles and took him to hospital. Scans showed no broken bones, but he suffered a head injury, bruising across one side of his body and ongoing back pain. Doctors advised him not to sleep for a week and to take complete rest.

“There is not a single day when I do not try to capture the beautiful and striking scenery of Halabja through my camera lens,” Ahmed said. “But today, because of the fall from the mountain, I could not do that. I am injured and my camera is also resting.”

Farhan Hamekhan, media official for Halabja Health Directorate, confirmed the account and said Ahmed had described arriving at hospital and recounting the incident to staff. He said Ahmed would remain in hospital for observation.

Ahmed became known in Halabja through landscape photography documenting the city’s mountains, neighborhoods and natural scenery. Despite developmental challenges in childhood and limited financial resources, he built his career through persistence, often walking long distances across the city to find his shots. Earlier this year he won first place in a photography exhibition during Halabja’s Pomegranate Festival. “I wanted to record the rain and lightning in the Halabja area,” he said of Thursday’s outing — one that ended with him unconscious on a mountainside, revived by the very weather he had gone to photograph.