At least six people, among them three children, were killed when their necks were slit by kite strings and 176 were injured due to cuts and falls while flying kites during the Uttarayan festival in Gujarat, police said on Monday.

In several cases, revellers used sharp strings to fly kites that ended up getting entangled around the necks of the victims and slitting them in such a way that they bled to death, officials said. A kite string cut the neck of two-year-old Kirti who was riding with her father on his two-wheeler in Bhavnagar city, and she died during treatment at a hospital on Sunday, an official from Bortalav police station said.

Kismat, 3, was walking home with her mother in Visnagar town on Saturday when a thread slit her neck. The girl was rushed to a hospital, where doctors declared her dead, a Visnagar police officer said.

Seven-year-old Rishabh Verma was riding with his parents on a two-wheeler after buying a kite when his neck was slit by a string in Rakjot.