Panchasayar: A third-year BSc Nursing student at Peerless Hospital was found hanging inside the toilet with the door locked from inside on Thursday night.

Rinki Ghosh from Ghatal in West Midnapore was apparently under academic pressure and upset with her mid-term exam results.

"There was no pulse when one of our roommates spotted her hanging around 10pm. We tried to resuscitate her but were unsuccessful," her roommate Sreyoshi Pyne said. "We rushed her to the emergency ward where she was declared dead."

The nursing syllabus is "very voluminous" and academic pressure is inevitable, the hospital authorities said.

"The death is extremely unfortunate even though students at times find themselves under tremendous mental pressure. Both parents and teachers should be compassionate with students," Sudipto Mitra, chief executive officer, Peerless Hospital, said.

Some of the nursing students of the hospital said it was difficult balancing their duty in the wards and studying for exams. "We have to do six-hours shifts at the hospital, at times do overtime, attend classes and then find time to study," a student said on Friday. "The syllabus is such that we need more time to study."

Initial investigations revealed the immediate trigger could be her father taking away her smartphone and giving her his basic phone after a parent-teacher meet on Thursday, police said. At the meet, he was apparently told that she and many others like her spent too much time on phones and this affected their studies, the police said.

A hospital official confirmed she had scored poorly in the mid-term exams, which is a selection test for the third-year finals. But she had qualified, the official said.

After word spread of her death, many students blocked the driveway leading to the hospital building from the main gate, claiming the death was a result of academic pressure and insults meted out to students by the college authorities. The protests continued till around 7pm on Friday.