《TAIPEI TIMES》 Kite sweeps up three-year-old at Hsinchu festival

By Tsai Chang-sheng and William Hetherington / Staff reporter, with staff writer

A three-year-old girl was carried several meters into the air yesterday during an international kite festival in Hsinchu, after being caught up in the tail of a 24m-long kite.

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The girl, surnamed Lin （林）, was standing near a navigator kite — a large kite used to carry smaller and less stable kites up into the air — when a sudden gust of strong wind pulled the navigator kite up, wrapping the kite’s tail around the girl’s waist as it flew upward, festival organizers said.

Lin — who weighs about 13kg — was flung about in the air for about eight seconds before the kite’s tail came near the ground, were people gathered to catch her.

The incident happened at 3:40pm as organizers were tying a toy panda stuffed with candy onto the navigator kite, which was to drop the candy from the sky for children at the festival, Asian Kite Forum director Cheng Ko-fang （鄭可方） said.

Workers at the festival immediately rushed to pull down the kite when they saw Lin was caught in its tail, Cheng said, adding that the forum would thoroughly investigate the incident and discuss how to prevent a recurrence.

City officials escorted Lin and her mother to Hsin Chu Armed Force Hospital, where they were joined by Hsinchu Deputy Mayor Shen Hui-hung （沈慧虹）, who presented the family with a red envelope on behalf of Hsinchu Mayor Lin Chih-chien （林智堅）.

The hospital said that, apart from some scratches around her neck, the girl was not seriously injured.

The city canceled the festival events for the rest of the day as a safety precaution.

Hsinchu Department of Economic Development Director Chang Li-ko （張力可） said the city would cancel festival activities on days with very strong winds and increase the number of festival workers present when large kites are in use.

Lin Chih-chien in a Facebook post apologized to the girl’s family and pledged to thoroughly investigate the cause of the incident.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES