The man, believed to be a first year biomedical sciences student, was seen plunging from the Bishops Complex halls of residence at Brunel University yesterday lunchtime.

Witnesses said he threw his books out of the sixth-floor window before falling out of it and plummeting to the ground.

Paramedics rushed to the block of flats in Uxbridge but he could not be saved and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police said they were not treating the death as suspicious, and were now trying to contact his family to tell them the tragic news.