Belgian student dies in fall from rooftop of Bacolod college

A Belgian exchange student fell to his death from the rooftop of a building at a school campus in Bacolod City late Tuesday afternoon, a Visayas-based news site reported Wednesday.

 

Police said the Belgian, initially identified as Matthew Geurts, 18, may have jumped to his death, according to a report on Visayan Daily Star Wednesday.

 

The report said the incident occurred at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at the La Consolacion College main campus in Bacolod City.  

Geurts was rushed to the Pablo O. Torre Memorial Hospital, but was declared dead on arrival.

 

Bacolod police Station 1 commander Chief Inspector Danilo Francisco said Geurts was a temporary resident of Brgy. Bata.

 

Francisco said they also recovered a letter that they believe to be a suicide note, but noted it was written in French.

 

Geurts was taking up Fine Arts, major in Digital Media, at LCC-Bacolod, and is a scholar of the American Field Service Organization (AFS), the report said.

 

Francisco quoted a student and an employee of the school as saying they saw Geurts on the rooftop of the Mother Ignacia Consuelo Barcelo Activity Center.

 

University comments

 

The report quoted Roderick Samonte, Director for External Relations of the University of St. La Salle and president of AFS Bacolod chapter, as saying Geurts had been in Bacolod for six months.

 

Samonte added Geurts is one of the 11 foreign nationals sent to Bacolod as part of the AFS’ inter-cultural program.  — ELR, GMA News