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Kite deaths mar Pakistan festival
Now I feel bad for laughing at the Anti-Kite Flying Democratic Front Up to nine people have been killed and dozens injured during an annual kite-flying festival called Basant in the Pakistani city of Lahore. Three people were electrocuted when banned metal wires they were using to fly kites - or catch stray ones - fell onto electric power lines. A young girlâs throat was slit by a stray metal kite string stretched across a road, witnesses said. At least two more people fell from roofs during the spring festival. Two men were also reportedly killed when they were hit by cars while trying to catch stray kites. Despite a ban on firing guns, several people were injured by stray bullets. Officials at a Lahore hospital said 42 children and 60 adults had been treated for kite-related injuries, the AFP news agency reported. Each year the festival spells tragedy for many families, the BBCâs Paul Anderson in Pakistan says. It has become a highly competitive event in which people employ extraordinary skills to bring down - better still, capture - an opponentâs kite. Sometimes they use string coated in pulverized glass to cut an opponentâs kite; other times metal wire - which is often coated in corrosive chemicals, our correspondent says. Posted by: Paul Moloney 2004-02-17 |
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