A 10-year-old student was accidentally strangled by a cloth that her father had hung from a wooden structure attached to the bed to create a makeshift swing for his two daughters at home in Hooghly’s Polba late on Monday evening.

Sources said Ankita Manna, 10, was playing with her sister Sanghita, 5, in their bedroom. As the sisters were playing with the swing, the cloth accidentally strangled Ankita. When the accident took place, Sandip Manna, the father of the two kids, had left for work, and the two sisters were under the care of their grandparents.

Sandip, who works as a daily wage earner, had recently separated from his wife and the two kids had been staying with him.

“There was none present when the children were playing in the room. The cloth accidentally got entangled on Ankita’s throat. When my wife went inside the room to enquire about the children, she found Ankita lying unconscious with the cloth around her throat,” said Laxman Manna, grandfather of the girls.

He added Sanghita was too small to raise an alarm.

After the grandparents cried for help, neighbours of Laxman rushed Ankita to Imambara district hospital in Chinsurah, where doctors declared her dead. Police said no foul play had been reported.

“The girl was killed in an accident. We have started a case of unnatural death. No foul play has been reported so far,” said Amandeep, the SP of Hooghly rural.