An ex-army man who was travelling to work on a bike on Wednesday afternoon died after his throat was slit with a kite string on Kalyani Expressway, police said.
The accident occurred on Vishwakarma Puja, when hundreds of kites are traditionally flown.
The police said a kite string slit the biker’s throat and resulted in his fall from the two-wheeler. He suffered a lot of blood loss, leading to his death.
Goutam Ghosh, a resident of Barrackpore, who was working as a security guard at the Calcutta airport was headed for the airport when he was flung off the two-wheeler.
He was taken to the Bandipur sub-divisional hospital, where doctors declared him dead.
Ghosh, who was in his mid-40s, earlier worked with the army, said his colleague Raju Samaddar. He joined a security agency after he retired from the army.
Several deaths and injuries from kite strings have been reported in the past but not much has been done to curb the menace.
The use of “Chinese manjha” — a term used for kite strings that are plastered with chemicals, glass powder and glue, and have the capability to slice through a human body — is banned.
Officers of Barrackpore Police Commissionerate said they have started an investigation into the death.
The police said the string had cut his throat several inches deep, causing a lot of blood loss that eventually caused his death.
Multiple accidents have been reported on the Parama flyover, prompting the government to install barriers on a long stretch to prevent kite strings from getting entangled with commuters and causing accidents.