Washington, May 28 (PTI): An Indian student, working part-time at an all-night convenience store in the US state of Pennsylvania, has been shot dead by an unidentified assailant.

Hitender Thakur, 23, hailing from Mandi, Himachal Pradesh, was shot in the chest by the robber after midnight on Thursday.

According to Harrisburg police, the robber pointed a handgun at Thakur through an open window in the glass that surrounds the counter as protection for the clerk. When Thakur bent to shut the window, he was shot.

Thakur was alone at the store and a customer later found the body behind the counter.

The killer is said to have emptied the register but netted only a little more than $ 100.

A statement released by the mayor’s office said police have few leads in the case other than the assailant being described as a thinly-built black male, under six feet tall, wearing a black hooded T-shirt and blue jeans.

Mayor Stephen Reed said an intensive investigation is under way into the crime, and that officers are working round-the-clock to identify the suspect.

“He should’ve taken the money and not shot Thakur,” storeowner Nirmal Singh Gill has been quoted as saying in the local media. “We saw him at 10 ’clock, and he relieved us and said, ‘see you tomorrow’,” said Narender Atwal, a friend, also from India, who worked with Thakur at the store.

“And then in the morning we got a call and there he is. He is no more,” he said.

Thakur was studying at Harrisburg area community college, aspiring to be a nurse and work for the World Health Organisation. The office of safety and security at the college made no comments, maintaining that only the office of public affairs could discuss the incident.