BEIRUT: Students and faculty of the American University of Beirut reacted with shock and sadness Wednesday to the apparent suicide of a 20-year-old engineering student. Marwan Mustafa Hamzeh, a third-year mechanical engineering student, was found outside Penrose men’s dorms after falling or jumping from the sixth floor balcony. Hamzeh was a resident of Kerr Hall, the neighboring men’s dormitory.

An investigation is underway, but according to a police report, authorities are treating his death as a suicide.

AUB Medical Center confirmed a student had died at 8:20 a.m. Wednesday morning after several attempts to revive him.

AUB spokeswoman Maha al-Azar confirmed the news but said the college would not give any details about the incident “out of respect to the victim’s family.”

“His family is deeply distressed [by the news of the] death and so are we and everybody on campus,” she told The Daily Star by telephone. [Link]