Boy Gets Tangled in Huge Kite and Falls to Death - Vietnam

a five-year-old boy was accidentally picked up by a huge kite after his legs became entangled in the ropes from a large kite, where he fell from a height of 20 metersin a tragic accident on Sunday in Ho Chi Minh City.

Although initially surviving the fall, he later died in hospital.

The victim was named as Van Minh Dat, whose parents sell beverages to kite fliers and members of the public in the Dong Dieu area in Hoc Mon District.

This is an area where people often fly kites of various colors and sizes in the afternoon, attracting a lot of spectators, especially children brought by their parents.

At about 4:00 pm yesterday, Dat was standing next to a huge red kite that was about to be flown on by the Saigon Kite Club in preparation for a kite festival to be held in Vung Tau, a seaside city about 100km from Ho Chi Minh City.

While a group of people were trying to fly the kite, whose wingspan is 18 meters wide, Dat managed to get under the kite’s wing without anyone noticing, according to Nguoi Lao Dong (Laborer) newspaper.

When the kite picked up enough air it flew up, taking Dat along with it, as the boy’s legs had accidentally become tied around strings on the kite’s wing, Nguoi Lao Dong said.

At that time, some witnesses dashed to pull the kite back down but they failed, the newspaper said.

When the kite reached a height of about 20 meters, the strings unwound from his legs and he fell to the ground. Witnesses took the boy to the Hoc Mon General Hospital for emergency aid but he died soon after.

Local police have detained a number of people involved in the case for investigation. Dat’s family lives in Hoc Mon’s Xuan Thoi Dong Commune.