diff --git a/searx/engines/duckduckgo_images.py b/searx/engines/duckduckgo_images.py
index 8c46ec92..89924b71 100644
--- a/searx/engines/duckduckgo_images.py
+++ b/searx/engines/duckduckgo_images.py
@@ -35,9 +35,12 @@ site_url = 'https://duckduckgo.com/?{query}&iar=images&iax=1&ia=images'
 
 # run query in site to get vqd number needed for requesting images
 # TODO: find a way to get this number without an extra request (is it a hash of the query?)
-def get_vqd(query):
-    res = get(site_url.format(query=urlencode({'q': query})))
+def get_vqd(query, headers):
+    query_url = site_url.format(query=urlencode({'q': query}))
+    res = get(query_url, headers=headers)
     content = res.text
+    if content.find('vqd=\'') == -1:
+        raise Exception('Request failed')
     vqd = content[content.find('vqd=\'') + 5:]
     vqd = vqd[:vqd.find('\'')]
     return vqd
@@ -47,7 +50,7 @@ def get_vqd(query):
 def request(query, params):
     # to avoid running actual external requests when testing
     if 'is_test' not in params:
-        vqd = get_vqd(query)
+        vqd = get_vqd(query, params['headers'])
     else:
         vqd = '12345'
 
@@ -74,7 +77,7 @@ def response(resp):
     try:
         res_json = loads(content)
     except:
-        return []
+        raise Exception('Cannot parse results')
 
     # parse results
     for result in res_json['results']:
diff --git a/tests/unit/engines/test_duckduckgo_images.py b/tests/unit/engines/test_duckduckgo_images.py
index 7a7657cd..0d152bec 100644
--- a/tests/unit/engines/test_duckduckgo_images.py
+++ b/tests/unit/engines/test_duckduckgo_images.py
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ class TestDuckduckgoImagesEngine(SearxTestCase):
         self.assertRaises(AttributeError, duckduckgo_images.response, '[]')
 
         response = mock.Mock(text='If this error persists, please let us know: ops@duckduckgo.com')
-        self.assertEqual(duckduckgo_images.response(response), [])
+        self.assertRaises(Exception, duckduckgo_images.response, response)
 
         json = u"""
         {