11 die in Pakistan kite festival
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2007
9:52 MECCA TIME, 6:52 GMT

At least 11 people have died and more than 100 injured at an annual kite
flying festival in eastern Pakistan.

The deaths and injuries were caused by stray bullets, sharpened kite-
strings, electrocution and people falling off rooftops at the conclusion
of the two-day Basant festival on Sunday, Ruqia Bano, spokeswoman for the
emergency services in the city of Lahore, said on Monday.

The festival is regularly marred by casualties caused by sharp kite
strings or celebratory gunshots fired into the air.
Kite flyers often use strings made of wire or coated with ground glass to
try to cross and cut a rival's string or damage the other kite, often
after betting on the outcome.

Authorities temporarily lifted a ban on kite-flying that was imposed
following a string of deaths at the festival last year.
Mian Amier Mahmood, the Lahore mayor, said the two-day permission to fly
kites ended on Sunday and that the ban had been re-imposed.

Police arrested more than 700 people for using sharpened kite strings or
firing guns, and seized 282 illegally held weapons during this year's
festival, said Aftab Cheema, a senior police officer in Lahore.

Five of those who died on Sunday were hit by stray bullets, including a
six-year-school boy who was struck in the head near his home in the
city's Mazang area, Bano said.

He also said that a 16-year-old girl and a school boy, 12, died after
their throats were slashed by metal kite strings in separate incidents.
Two people were electrocuted while they tried to recover kites tangled in
overhead power cables.

A 13-year-old boy fell to his death from the roof of his home as he tried
to catch a stray kite, and a 35-year-old woman fell off the roof of her
home trying to stop her son from running after a stray kite.