UK coroner calls for probe into Indian student`s death

London: A British coroner has asked police in the UK and India to investigate further into the suspected suicide of an Indian student, who was found dead in her campus accommodation at Liverpool University earlier this month.

The body of Georgianna Thomsson, an 18-year-old aspiring astronaut from Chennai, was discovered hanging in her room at Melville Grove on the university campus. "There were various notes left within the accommodation. Some of those notes seemed to indicate intentional self-harm. However, there were other notes which led me to direct there be investigations not just here, but also in Chennai," Liverpool Coroner Andre Rebello said. According to local media reports, Thomsson - an aerospace engineering student at the university - had not been seen for several days before her body was found on July 12. She had reportedly started missing lectures in February. "She was last seen on July 3 by a domestic supervisor. Her room was checked daily and although she was never seen after this date all Georgianna`s possessions were still in the room as if she was still living there. On July 12, the domestic supervisor returned to the room to see if she had left and on entering Georgianna was found hanging," the coroner added. Local Merseyside Police have confirmed that officers are working to respond to the coroner`s directions of a further probe to piece together the circumstances surrounding Georgianna`s death. Her father Seshiyan Thomsson, a policeman from Chennai, has insisted there was more to his daughter`s mysterious death. "There is no fan, no iron rod in the room where she was found dead. How could she hang herself," he had said following a visit to the room where her body was found. He has refused to accept the return of his daughter`s body for her funeral to take place until further investigations were carried out. "We are extremely saddened by Georgianna`s death. Our thoughts are with her family and friends and we are doing our utmost to support them at this very difficult time," a university spokesperson said. PTI