This young woman has tragically died after her neck was sliced open by a kite line while she was riding her motorbike.

The accident occurred when Flaviane Ferreira dos Reis, 23, was riding her motorbike on the BR-060 motorway in the Brazilian city of Goiania on the evening of 3rd July.

A loose string from a fighter kite drifted across the road at the time Flaviane, who lived in the nearby municipality of Abadia de Goias, was passing, and it cut her neck.

The fire brigade was called and firemen came to the young woman’s aid. However, they were unable to save her from dying at the scene of the accident.

Her cause of death was given as cervical trauma caused by the abrasive string, known as ‘cerol’ in Brazil and ‘manja’ or ‘manjha’ in the Indian subcontinent, where kite fighting is often practised.

Flaviane had just received her degree in education and would have turned 24 on 10th July. She was engaged to her fiance, Ricardo Manuel Souza.

He said on 4th July: “She just graduated last week. She did not deserve this. We had been together for five years, we were going to get married, we were engaged.

“We were going to go travelling on her birthday, six days from now. She was just beginning her life.”

The Brazilian traffic police believes Flaviane did not notice the wire, which would have been lying on the tarmac and then lifted into the air by a passing car.

According to the traffic police, no one had been seen flying a kite in the vicinity at the time of the accident.

The kite line was retrieved from the scene for analysis as part of the ongoing investigation into the young woman’s death.

Fighter kites are typically flown with a very sharp, abrasive coated line.

Two or more participants fly their kites in informal neighbourhood competitions, and the person who cuts the opponent’s line, or the person with the last kite in the air, wins the fight.

Many fatal accidents have occurred in Brazil involving bikers and cyclists who have travelled through areas where children and teens partake in kite fighting.