HYOGO (TR) – Hyogo Prefectural Police are investigating what is believed to have been a suicide after a high school boy plunged to his death from an apartment building in Akashi City on Sunday, reports the Yomiuri Shimbun (May 21).
At around 7:30 p.m., a female resident of the building, located in the Uozumicho area, alerted emergency services after finding the boy, 15, collapsed face-down in front of a parking lot. The boy, who lived on the seventh floor, was later confirmed dead at a nearby hospital, according to the Akashi Police Station.
On a passageway on the eighth floor, the boy’s bag and shoes were found, leading police to believe that he leaped from the floor in intentionally taking his life. A will was not found at the scene, police said.
The boy was a first-year student at a school in the prefecture. The Hyogo Prefectural Board of Education is now inquiring about whether the boy suffered from bullying, police said.