A 35-year-old associate professor with the renowned Tsinghua University was stabbed to death on Monday evening.

The body of Xiong Shenshu was found on Monday night by her husband on a staircase between the fourth and fifth floor of the block of flats where they lived, reported the Beijing News Daily yesterday.

Xiong, who works with the Department of Precision Instruments of Tsinghua, lived at a residential area in the Shangdi Development Zone, a high-tech park in northwest suburb Beijing.

"Blood was seen on the stairs and walls an obvious wound could be seen on the head of the victim," quoted another witness surnamed Zhang in the newspaper.

Officers rushed to the site within five minutes after Xiong's husband called the police 110 hotline for help, neighbours said.

Police from Haidian District police bureau are questioning residents living in the same block to recall suspicious figures they had seen on the day of the murder, said the report.

At the same time, forensic experts were scouring the scene where the body was found.

Officials with the information centre of Tsinghua University told reporters that the university will work closely with the police on the case.

Describing Xiong's death as "a tragedy," her colleagues described her as easy-going. They said she also had had a kindergarten-aged child.

Colleagues and students of Xiong said she was "smart" and entered the Tsinghua University at the age of 15.

(China Daily December 29, 2005)