Students in the Xianlin campus of Nanjing University are still reeling in shock from the news that a classmate fell to her death from the 18th floor of a university building. In a grim coincidence, the incident is Xianlin’s second on-campus student fatality this month.
On 20 September, accounts began to emerge on the internet that during the evening prior, a student fell from building 19 in Nanjing University Xianlin Campus. The student is suspected to be a female doctoral student in the School of Social Sciences.
Local news outlets soon published the story, reporting that a witness did indeed see someone fall from the building at around 10 pm in the evening in question. “She lives on the 18th floor and is a doctoral student”, the witness said, going on to comment that the police gathered evidence around the body for quite some time, taking until 2 am to remove it.
Meanwhile, reporters from The Paper received confirmation yesterday from Xianlin Police that the incident is currently under investigation.
A student on campus also told that outlet that in the morning a cordon was set up near the pillars of building 19, from the bicycle parking space to the underground parking lot. “I heard on the 19th that someone heard muffled noises, and then there was crying coming from the dormitory”, the unnamed student said.
Also in Xianlin, police are investigating another, earlier student death which took place on 12 September at Nanjing Normal University.
The victim, surnamed Liu, a male junior majoring in history, was found dead with three facial injuries by his room mate at 18:15, who immediately called for help.
Doctors administering CPR on the scene and on the way to Xianlin Taikang Gulou Hospital were unable to revive the victim.
A death certificate published by The Paper states the cause of death as, “Severe head trauma”. Doctors interviewed said that unnatural deaths of unknown cause are classified as sudden deaths.
Both the investigations are continuing.
