Student, 20, is found dead in his halls at Coventry University as police say tragedy is not suspicious
A 20-year-old Coventry University student has been found dead in a halls of residence.
West Midlands Police said the student was found dead in the Bishop Gate halls in the city centre last Friday, and detectives were treating the death as non-suspicious.
The man is at least the eighth student to have died since Britain’s universities returned last month following the coronavirus lockdown.
The Coventry student was found dead in the Bishop Gate halls of residence (file picture)
Coventry University is not thought to have put any students halls into lockdown, although its latest data shows 36 students have tested positive for Covid-19.
The figures for the week ending October 6 included 21 who had been on campus and 15 off campus. One member of staff was also confirmed to have virus.
Last month shocking footage showed hundreds of students climbing on top of ping pong tables and raving at a Coventry University accommodation block.
At least 200 students were thought to have crammed into a common room at Arundel House, close to the university’s main campus, ignoring social distancing guidelines.
Some revellers could be heard screaming, while a group of male students clambered on top of a table as they sang along to thumping music.
A Coventry University spokesman said: ‘We are saddened by the death of one of our students.
‘Our thoughts are with their family and friends at this awful time and we are offering all the support we can to the family.
‘We have a full range of mental health support services available for students and colleagues affected by this tragic news. We ask that the family’s privacy be respected.’
A West Midlands Police spokesman said: ‘We were called to the student accommodation on October 16 where the body of a man in his 20s was found.
‘His death is not being treated as suspicious and has been referred to the coroner.’
Bishop Gate is a university-owned halls which opened in 2018 and provides 725 ensuites and studios in flats of nine and ten rooms, costing up to £199 per week.
Among the students at other universities to have been found dead since they returned last month are University of Bath student Martin Bowers, 20, whose body was found in the River Avon on September 25 after he went missing six days earlier in Bristol.
On September 30, police also found the body of his fellow University of Bath student Alec Unsgaard who had been missing for 12 days after vanishing while out celebrating his 21st birthday.
Then on October 3 and 4, there were three students who died in drugs-related deaths in Newcastle over one weekend, including Jeni Larmour, 18, who was found dead at the Richardson Road halls at Newcastle University after allegedly taking ketamine.
Jeni Larmour (left), 18, a Newcastle University student; and Finn Kitson (right), 19, Cambridge University student, are among at least eight university students who have died so far this term
The next day a Northumbria University student aged 21, who was not named, was taken ill at his halls in Newcastle after allegedly taking MDMA and died in hospital.
That same day, a second Newcastle University student aged 18, also not named, was found dead at the Richardson Road halls after also allegedly taking ketamine.
Then on October 8, University of Manchester student Finn Kitson, 19, was found dead at the university’s Fallowfield halls of residence.
And last Thursday, Nottingham Trent University student Hope Starsmore, 20, died eight days after a car crash in Burgh Le Marsh, Lincolnshire.