SORAN, Kurdistan Region - More than 40 tourist buses carrying hundreds of Iraqi tourists spent hours trapped in the snow on Sunday night before being pulled out by civil defense teams and volunteers in Erbil province’s Hassan Beg Mountain. A large number of ambulances, security, and civil defense teams worked for over four hours, despite the heavy snowfall, to rescue the tourists stuck in the snow. “About 30 tourist buses went to Hassan Beg Mountain today, but the road was blocked due to heavy snowfall,” Ihsan Chalabi, mayor of Sidakan, told Rudaw. “Luckily, our teams rescued the tourists and a lot of volunteers helped our teams,” Barzan Mir, transportation director of Soran, said. According to locals, 15 centimeters of snow fell in the Soran district and surrounding areas on Sunday afternoon. “At 4 pm, we went to the mountain, and at 7 pm we started to go back because the cars could not move because of the heavy snow on the road,” Noor Ali, a tourist, said on Sunday. Local residents say there has been less snow this year than normal. The snowfall in recent days has attracted those keen to enjoy the last winter weeks in the snow. The Kurdistan Region attracts some international tourists, but the bulk of the holidaymakers come from the southern and central provinces of Iraq. The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) plans to attract 20 million tourists annually by 2030.
