Teacher jumps to her death in front of Hong Kong schoolchildren

A teacher jumped to her death on a secondary school playground in Hong Kong in front of around 20 children, police said Tuesday.

The 37-year-old woman who taught liberal studies and home economics leapt from a fourth-floor corridor overlooking the playground at the school in the city's Kowloon Tong district, dpa reported.

Some of the pupils who witnessed her fall were traumatized by the incident on Monday afternoon and were offered counselling, a police spokesman said.

Around 1,000 people a year kill themselves in Hong Kong, a densely populated city of 7 million people, and jumping from high buildings is the most common form of suicide.