1,000 kite fliers arrested in Pakistan.

But it's not because of fundamentalist opposition to kite-flying. It's about dangerous string.

Revellers taking part in the Basant festival, which marks the start of the spring in Punjab, spend millions of rupees on day-and-night kite battles and the skies are filled with the brightly coloured toys.

Many people use strings coated with a paste containing glass powder or with iron wool to sever the strings of rival kites. But the cords have also claimed the lives of 10 people, most of them children, police and newspapers said.

Most are killed when the strings fall across roads at head height and slit the throats of people on motorbikes.

Kite battles. Rival kites. Dangerous string.