Student Marc Olivier Assouan Wadjas threw himself off a ten storey university building in Teesside after his student debt became too much to bear. It seems that the university had put pressure on him to repay over £6,500 in tuition fees which he owed. Letters were found at his flat giving him just one week to repay the money.

University lecturer Dr Elizabeth Robertson witnessed the terrible moment when Marc Olivier Assouan Wadjas ended his life by leaping off the tower block. She recalls hearing screams, then “I looked away for a reason I can’t explain and after a split second I looked back to see the body of a male falling to the ground,” she said.

“The male’s arms were outstretched. I knew that the male was going to hit the ground so I looked away. As he did I heard the most horrible sound. I recall hearing the male’s body crunch and the ground shaking.”

She added: “I screamed for the security lady to ring for an ambulance because someone had jumped from the tower.

“When I saw the male falling to the ground and immediately prior to impact with the ground there was no screaming or shouting at all.”

Moments before he plunged to his death, Mr Wadjas spoke to his lecturer, Peter Raby. Mr Raby said that Mr Wadjas came into his classroom and was clearly agitated.

“There was something about him. I can’t say what, but something about him was giving me a gut feeling,” he said.

When asked to describe Mr Wadjas' character, another lecturer of his described him as “an awkward and slightly erratic individual who didn’t mix well”.