Krishnagar, March 13: A 12-year-old girl accompanying her grandfather for an eye check-up to a Nadia hospital got strangled today when her fluttering dupatta got entangled in the wheel of the cycle van carrying them.

Swati Ghosh, a Class VI student and daughter of a farm labourer, was yanked off the cycle van after the dupatta got caught in the wheel. She fell on the metalled road and lost consciousness.

Police said Swati and her mother Seema were taking the teenager's grandfather for an eye check-up. They arrived at Bhandartikuri station near Nabadwip from Burdwan's Purbasthali in a train. From there, they hired the cycle van.

The girl's mother said her daughter's dupatta was hanging loose near the left wheel of the cycle van and fluttering as it was windy.

"All of a sudden, she was yanked off the cycle van. I saw that her dupatta had got entangled in the spoke of the wheel. She fell to the ground and lost consciousness. But she was still breathing," Seema said.

The girl was taken to Nabadwip State General Hospital, 1.5km away, where she was declared dead on arrival.

"We were in a hurry to reach the hospital for her grandfather's check-up as we were already late. I had seen her dupatta fluttering but it never struck me that it could get entangled in the wheel," Seema, a homemaker, sobbed.

She said her daughter and father-in-law were sitting at the front of the van while she was at the back.

Doctors at the hospital said the girl died because of strangulation. "The exact cause of death will be known after the post-mortem," a doctor said.

The girl's grandfather, 65-year-old Mohon Ghosh, was inconsolable. "It all happened because of me," he said.

The body has been sent to Saktinagar District Hospital in Krishnagar for the post-mortem.

The police have started a case of unnatural death.

The cycle-van operator fled the spot.