Kite thread slashes bike rider’s throat

A 59-year-old two-wheeler rider was seriously injured when his neck was cut by a thread used to fly kites.

S.M. Ansari, a retired bench clerk from Madras High Court, was returning to his home in Mint after visiting a friend in Royapuram around 7 p.m. on Sunday, when he felt a burning sensation on his neck and found himself bleeding profusely. Mr. Ansari lives in a street below the Mint bridge, where the accident occurred.

“I tied a scarf around my neck to stop the bleeding but it was of little help,” Mr. Ansari, who is recuperating at Government Stanley Hospital, said on Monday. A couple of motorcyclists who were riding behind him, called for an ambulance.

“But before the ambulance could reach, the young men put me in an autorickshaw and brought me to the hospital as I was bleeding severely,” Mr. Ansari recalled.

According to his son-in-law Thameem Azami, the doctor told him that Mr. Ansari has had a lucky escape. The damage could have been greater or life-threatening but the thread had missed life-sustaining blood vessels by just a few millimetres.

The government has banned the use of maanja (glass-coated thread) to fly kites. One person has been arrested in this connection.