Six people, of which three were children, have died after their throats were sliced by kite strings at a festival held in India’s Gujarat state, it’s been reported. The horrific accident took place at the Uttarayan festival over the weekend as locals were alleged to have engaged in “kite fights,” where the goal is to divide the strings of one’s opponent. And in an unfortunate turn of events, six people were reportedly killed during the event after the strings got entangled around their necks.
Police said that over 200 people were injured at the event, with three children and three adults having since died. What made the event so dangerous was that the strings attached to the kites were glass-coated, making them “razor-sharp” and quite frankly, very dangerous to operate. Several people were said to have bled to death while others were taken to the hospital where they were later pronounced dead.
Six people, including three children, have been killed at a kite festival in India after razor-sharp strings cut their throats. As well as the devastating injuries caused to people, the kite strings also kill & maim hundreds of birds annually. pic.twitter.com/w0K2OBRxKm
— Jim Slater (@SouthCoastPoet) January 18, 2023
Two of the victims were just two and three in age, with cops confirming that a seven-year-old boy was the third child to have lost their life in the unfortunate incident. The three-year-old, who was simply identified as Kismat, died after walking home with her mother when a kite string suddenly made contact with her throat.
Kite flying events such as this one aren’t uncommon in India, nor are the accidents that have occurred in the process. In August 2016, for example, several people were killed — including two children — when their throats were slit open by the same glass-coated strings in different parts of Delhi as the country celebrated its Independence Day.
It appears that these deaths from kite festivals are happening so frequently in India at this point, many people have called for the events to be stopped altogether. Considering the dangers that come with flying these kites, which are sometimes even reinforced with metal, it would be outrageous to continue supporting what’s become an Indian tradition, angered social media users sounded off on Reddit.
“How many times are we going to read the same headlines about people dying from these kite festivals until India decides to interfere and stop them from happening?” one user wrote. Another continued, “More deaths in India over people doing kite fights knowing d*** well those strings are extremely sharp and could kill someone in a matter of seconds. So irresponsible.”