WOMAN ON SCOOTER DIES AFTER THROAT SLIT BY KITE STRING IN INDIA

Sat 15 January 2022:

A 20-year-old woman lost her life as the `Chinese string’ (string coated with powered glass) of a kite slit her throat in Madhya Pradesh’s Ujjain city on Saturday, police said.

The incident took place at Zero Point Bridge under Madhav Nagar police station limits when the woman was riding a scooter with a friend, Additional Superintendent of Police Ravindra Verma said.

A kite string slashed her throat and she bled to death on the spot, the officer said, adding that the girl who was riding pillion was safe.

A case was registered and search was on for the person who was flying the kite. Police were also scanning CCTV footage of the area, Verma said.

Police will also take action against the suppliers and sellers of powdered glass-coated string, commonly called `Chinese string’, the officer added.

The string is coated with powdered glass to make it razor-sharp and enable it to `cut’ other kites flying in the sky.

But the incidents of people, especially bike-riders, getting slashed by it, sometimes fatally, are reported every year around the Makar Sankranti festival.