A three-year-old girl was rescued alive after being blown through the air by a powerful kite she clung to for 31 seconds over the weekend at a festival in Taiwan.
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The scene was filmed by many spectators in the city of Hsinchu. In these videos, the excitement aroused by the preparation of the enormous kite quickly gives way to dread, when the crowd realizes that the little girl is found clinging to the tail of the craft, and carried high in the airs. For 31 seconds, the girl is tossed in the air by the powerful gusts.
Spectators finally managed to catch up with her when the wind died down. Hsinchu Mayor Lin Chih-chien clarified that the child suffered from scratches on his face and was terrified by the experience. The images quickly went viral on social media. “All those who saw the scene were afraid of their lives. It happened in an instant, ”said a blogger calling himself Via in an accompanying Facebook comment to a video that has been viewed by more than 1.61 million people.
A 34-year-old man, who only gave his last name, Lin, told Apple Daily that he helped receive the girl when the kite came close to the ground. “ At the beginning I thought it was a kind of stunt show (...) but very quickly I said to myself that the child should not be let down, ” he said.