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Holy Shit. Kites kill 6 people by slitting their throats. Injure over 100 others.

Featured Replies

What kind of kite string are these maniacs using?

 

https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/six-dead-throats-slit-kites-india/

Six people, including three children have died at a festival in India after their throats were sliced open by kite strings.

176 people were injured due to cuts and falls while flying kites during the Uttarayan festival in Gujarat, police said on Monday.

Hundreds of people had been taking part in the kite flying festival over the weekend, flying them from terraces and rooftops.

Police said that the six victims, including two girls, both two and a seven year old boy, died when kites ‘with sharp strings’ were entangled round victims’ necks, slitting their throats.

Police said six people had died including three children at the kite-flying festival (file image). 

One girl, Kirti, two, died in hospital on Sunday after she was injured while flying a kite while riding with her father on a bike in Bhavnagar city.

A three year old girl died in another town on Saturday when a thread from a kite slit her throat while she was walking home with her mother.

A seven-year-old was riding with his parents on a two-wheeler after buying a kite when his neck was slit by a string in Rakjot, a city in Western India.

Similar incidents were reported in three other places, with three men losing their lives when their necks were slit by kite strings while they were travelling on their two-wheelers.

Emergency services said a total of 130 people sustained cuts and 46 were injured while falling from a height while flying kites on Saturday and Sunday, the Tribune India reports.

It is one of the biggest festivals celebrated in the Gujarat region, celebrated from the 14th January each year, marking the formal start of the end of winter and the return of more clement weather for farmers.

Kites of all shapes and sizes are flown, usually made of lightweight paper and bamboo.

From another source:

”However, the festival also “sees revellers take place in deadly contests where they try to cut down other kites with their own kite string”, wrote The Mirror. It said these contests lead kite flyers to reinforce their kite strings “with glass powder or even metal, making it sharp enough to lead to the horrific deaths”.

Kite flying has become “notorious for causing death and serious injury in India”, said the Daily Mail, with two children dying at the event in 2016. That year the local government in India’s capital Delhi banned the use of sharpened, glass-covered strings, promising to “run campaigns to educate people about the dangers” as well as hand out punishments to those who do use them, said the BBC. In 2017, the National Green Tribunal banned the use of the strings, known as ‘manja’, across India.” 

Edited by Homercles

8 minutes ago, Homercles said:

From another source:

”However, the festival also “sees revellers take place in deadly contests where they try to cut down other kites with their own kite string”, wrote The Mirror. It said these contests lead kite flyers to reinforce their kite strings “with glass powder or even metal, making it sharp enough to lead to the horrific deaths”.

 

https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0419887/
 

kite strings do serious damage. i had the wind whip a kite away from me while i was holding onto the slack. in just those 2 seconds it chiseled a mark from my wrist to my fingertips that lasted a year

Y’all never read The Kite Runner?

  • Author
17 minutes ago, Homercles said:

From another source:

”However, the festival also “sees revellers take place in deadly contests where they try to cut down other kites with their own kite string”, wrote The Mirror. It said these contests lead kite flyers to reinforce their kite strings “with glass powder or even metal, making it sharp enough to lead to the horrific deaths”.

Kite flying has become “notorious for causing death and serious injury in India”, said the Daily Mail, with two children dying at the event in 2016. That year the local government in India’s capital Delhi banned the use of sharpened, glass-covered strings, promising to “run campaigns to educate people about the dangers” as well as hand out punishments to those who do use them, said the BBC. In 2017, the National Green Tribunal banned the use of the strings, known as ‘manja’, across India.” 

Gang rape and kite killings.

 

What are things Indian men do well, Alex.

 

When I was a kid we used to have great kit battles using those plastic "bat" kites.  You would try to take down another kid's kite.  Eventually we weaponized our kites with . . . you guessed it . . . razor blades.

None of us had our throats slashed.  None of us were ever even remotely injured.  This story is bizarre.

honestly thought Kites were a people and was going to make a kite joke.

41 minutes ago, crash_davis said:

Gang rape and kite killings.

What are things Indian men do well, Alex.

@satyanash

9 minutes ago, po elvis said:

honestly thought Kites were a people and was going to make a kite joke.

I pictured flocks of small raptors getting slicey.

38 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

When I was a kid we used to have great kit battles using those plastic "bat" kites.  You would try to take down another kid's kite.  Eventually we weaponized our kites with . . . you guessed it . . . razor blades.

None of us had our throats slashed.  None of us were ever even remotely injured.  This story is bizarre.

We did the same.  Never a scratch. Back then it was called good clean fun.  

4 minutes ago, HouTex said:

We did the same.  Never a scratch. Back then it was called good clean fun.  

Well there weren’t literal thousands of people doing it all at the same time with razor wire in a country where safety is barely a word and life is often a disposable asset.  
 

Hopefully they can get some enforceable laws in place before the annual lawn dart festival in February.  

Swallow-tailed_Kite_AndyMorffew_FlickrCC

I had heard of gluing glass on kite strings for kite fighting.  But I always thought you did the last few feet before the kite. 

 

I suppose that might be dangerous at launch, but it seems like maybe they're doing a lot of the string. 

 

How exactly do you attach razor blades to a kite string? 

Edited by TwiceHorn

  • Popular Post

These things flew themselves:

Gala kite baby bat (japan import) : Amazon.ca: Toys & Games

I had no idea this was a thing.  Glass powder on kite strings?  

Gives me PTSD flashbacks of when my son almost lost his pinky finger from a tow rope tied to a tube behind a boat.  He reached down to grab the rope when it had slack, FIL didn't see him reach down, gave it some throttle, and POP.  Peeled the skin off almost to the bone from the second knuckle to the nail.  A 20 min boat ride back to the dock followed by an hour drive to the Jasper ER and 30+ stitches later, he was back in business.  Doctors were amazed there was no ligament or tendon damage.

These things flew themselves:
31nOCI3XMYL._AC_.jpg
I had several of those bad boys and rode the bus past the headquarters often-Gayla Industries. Pride of Nawf Side H town. Inwood up to no good.

Should this thread be renamed “what the fuck is wrong with you India?”

8 minutes ago, Spaulding Smails said:

I had no idea this was a thing.  Glass powder on kite strings?  

Gives me PTSD flashbacks of when my son almost lost his pinky finger from a tow rope tied to a tube behind a boat.  He reached down to grab the rope when it had slack, FIL didn't see him reach down, gave it some throttle, and POP.  Peeled the skin off almost to the bone from the second knuckle to the nail.  A 20 min boat ride back to the dock followed by an hour drive to the Jasper ER and 30+ stitches later, he was back in business.  Doctors were amazed there was no ligament or tendon damage.

but was the anchor scratched?

1 minute ago, slorch said:

but was the anchor scratched?

He did make me get my foot off the boat during his pre-departure speech.

It's easy to grin when your ship's come in and you've got the stock market beat.  But the man worthwhile is the one who can smile when his shorts aren't too tight in the seat!

30 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

These things flew themselves:

Gala kite baby bat (japan import) : Amazon.ca: Toys & Games

We also had the one with the two large blood shot eyes.  

  • Author
14 minutes ago, Lhorn said:

Should this thread be renamed “what the fuck is wrong with you India?”

There's not enough bandwidth on the internet for that thread.

22 minutes ago, Spaulding Smails said:

I had no idea this was a thing.  Glass powder on kite strings?  

Gives me PTSD flashbacks of when my son almost lost his pinky finger from a tow rope tied to a tube behind a boat.  He reached down to grab the rope when it had slack, FIL didn't see him reach down, gave it some throttle, and POP.  Peeled the skin off almost to the bone from the second knuckle to the nail.  A 20 min boat ride back to the dock followed by an hour drive to the Jasper ER and 30+ stitches later, he was back in business.  Doctors were amazed there was no ligament or tendon damage.

 

jaws8.gif

34 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

How exactly do you attach razor blades to a kite string? 

It's harder than you think and you need to use razors like below - they have to be attached with the line let out and not yet tied to the kite, and you can do it a few ways, but mainly with a fairly simple knot you tie in the string after feeding the line through the hole in the razor blade and using the notches.  Thankfully those notches on the side of the razor blade can help keep it in place with a few wraps of the line around the razor using those notches.

The hard part is you have to be careful as you are winding it in, to make sure you aren't cutting your own kite string.  It's best to leave those little cardboard slip covers on  until you are letting it out, and then as you retrieve the line, put them back on.

762327

42 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

How exactly do you attach razor blades to a kite string? 

We glued ours to the kite itself.  They made mid-air battles much shorter.

If you're lookin to win a kite fight, seems like a mistake to concentrate on the kites.

The enemy kite-handler is standin right there. Have a buddy walk behind him and go upside his head with a glass bottle. Boom. Battle won.

48 minutes ago, Born to Run said:
1 hour ago, jimmyjazz said:
These things flew themselves:
31nOCI3XMYL._AC_.jpg

I had several of those bad boys and rode the bus past the headquarters often-Gayla Industries. Pride of Nawf Side H town. Inwood up to no good.

hell yeah.  i tried taping nails to one during a kite battle.  the result was ... not such a flight-worthy kite

2 hours ago, Parliament said:

Something, something, BAN KITES!!!

Are you saying you're against banning kites “with glass powder or even metal, making it sharp enough to lead to the horrific deaths”?

"Kites don't kill people, people with kites with razor blades on the string kill people."

Edited by 'stache

55 minutes ago, Born to Run said:
1 hour ago, jimmyjazz said:
These things flew themselves:
31nOCI3XMYL._AC_.jpg

I had several of those bad boys and rode the bus past the headquarters often-Gayla Industries. Pride of Nawf Side H town. Inwood up to no good.

Yep.  Gayla HQ on Antoine, just down the street from my old neighborhood.  Shout out to Candlelight Oaks.

3 hours ago, po elvis said:

honestly thought Kites were a people and was going to make a kite joke.

410cf80a-a9dd-4fa6-b2a7-d11d562bc565_text.gif.6dd193e2231f0d25df5dad93ced57030.gif

Putting glass on strings for kite fighting is really common in Latin America. Never heard a story like this though.

image.thumb.png.09d26b6421ba95680eb3bfebd6739412.png

 

Does that look like the face of someone that would slit 6 throats?

 

Yep.  Gayla HQ on Antoine, just down the street from my old neighborhood.  Shout out to Candlelight Oaks.
Nice area that went to shit in the 80s with the quickness. Candlelight Oaks got hood as fuck too.

We've had a ton of fun with these when my son was younger. Easy stunt kite to learn; and super durable. It's relaxing as shit to fly it on a trip somewhere as the sun goes down.
Prism Kite Technology Synapse Dual-line Parafoil Kite - an Ideal Entry Level Kite for Kids and Adults to Dual-line Kiting https://a.co/d/5BNcctK


Add your own glass strings and start waxing fools.

Eh, you don't know kiting until you've had to cross 3 barbed wire fences, outrun a bull, do your best Frogger imitation to cross a state highway and then rescue your runaway kite off that asshole Mr. Gann's shed.



Eh, you don't know kiting until you've had to cross 3 barbed wire fences, outrun a bull, do your best Frogger imitation to cross a state highway and then rescue your runaway kite off that asshole Mr. Gann's shed.


Actually I feel like that was my highest calling, something I was Born to do. Excepting evading Mr Gann, didn't know that dude.
1 hour ago, Born to Run said:

We've had a ton of fun with these when my son was younger. Easy stunt kite to learn; and super durable. It's relaxing as shit to fly it on a trip somewhere as the sun goes down.
Prism Kite Technology Synapse Dual-line Parafoil Kite - an Ideal Entry Level Kite for Kids and Adults to Dual-line Kiting https://a.co/d/5BNcctK


Add your own glass strings and start waxing fools.

Lol from the reviews.

Quote
  • 1 
    vote
Answer:
No! This kite is not large enough to carry you. However, when you are in an open field or at the beach, you will feel the power of the wind. But not enough to lift you or pull you like the larger surf kites 
By OC Kiteflyer on June 18, 2020

 

1 hour ago, Born to Run said:
4 hours ago, 83Horn said:
Yep.  Gayla HQ on Antoine, just down the street from my old neighborhood.  Shout out to Candlelight Oaks.

Nice area that went to shit in the 80s with the quickness. Candlelight Oaks got hood as fuck too.

Yeah, that's a shame.  Good thing I haven't lived there since leaving for school in '79.

7 hours ago, po elvis said:

honestly thought Kites were a people and was going to make a kite joke.

If you don't have your reading glasses on, you might think it said "Kikes".

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