Mexico City, Apr 26 (IANS/EFE): Bulletproof vests and backpacks for children will be sold beginning this week in Mexico, where drug-related violence has claimed tens of thousands of lives over the past six years.

Colombian businessman Miguel Caballero, nicknamed the "Armani of Armor", is behind this children's clothing line that is already being sold in the US and will soon reach the Canadian market.

The body armor goes unnoticed and saves kids' lives, Caballero told EFE, adding that a group of US parents asked him to work on this clothing line after last December's massacre of 20 children and six adult staff members at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.

The items, which weigh just over one kg and range in price from $150 to $450, are made of rigid synthetic fiber and contain a special material that helps reduce ballistic trauma.

Caballero, who has designed bulletproof clothing for politicians and celebrities for several years, said the children's clothing line features action-hero prints and designs.

He is launching the line in Mexico this week at the Expo Seguridad event in Mexico City, the leading security industry trade show in the Spanish-speaking world.

Some 400 exhibitors from a dozen countries, mainly Mexico, the US and Colombia, will showcase a broad range of products from clothing and footwear to unmanned aircraft and closed-circuit cameras during the event.

More than 70,000 people have died in Mexico since December 2006 in conflict among drug cartels and between the criminals and the security forces.