Kite-flying claimed two lives and left a boy critically injured in separate incidents over the past two days in Hyderabad, police said on Tuesday. A 11-year-old boy died after accidentally falling from the terrace of a three-storey building on Monday. A police officer said that the minor sustained critical injuries and was shifted to a hospital where he succumbed. The incident occurred in Ameen Mandi area.
In a similar incident on the same day, a 9-year-old boy sustained critical injuries after he fell from the first floor of his house in Nampally area while flying a kite. Police said the boy was admitted to hospital.
A 27-year-old youth also fell to his death while flying a kite on the terrace of his house in Warasiguda area on Sunday. Syed Khalid, who got married six months ago, lost his balance and fell on the compound wall of an adjacent building.
Youth and children take to kite-flying during the Sankranti holidays. Hundreds of people can be seen flying kites from the terraces of their buildings in the twin cities of Hyderabad, Secunderabad and its outskirts.
Meanwhile, Hyderabad police commissioner Anjani Kumar on Monday took to social media to dismiss rumours doing the rounds, that kite flying had been banned in the city, on the eve of Sankranti.
The senior police officer had to issue the clarification after a few people took to Twitter and claimed that the Hyderabad police had issued a blanket ban on flying kites during the festival.
“I want to make it very clear that there is no ban on flying kites. Sankranti itself, is a festival of kites, so how can anybody think of banning it? There is only suggestion and regulation that one should be careful that it should not go into the premises of some religious structures. That is the spirit of the suggestion made by the police,” he said in an audio note.
He also advised those flying kites on rooftops to be cautious of their surroundings.
IANS inputs