More than two months after a 20-year-old student from Nepal was said to have died by suicide at Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology in Odisha’s Bhubaneswar, another student from the neighbouring country was found dead in the university on Thursday, India Today reported.

The 18-year-old student was found dead in her room in one of the girls’ hostels around 7 pm, India Today quoted unidentified police officers as saying. She was from Birgunj in Nepal and was in her first year of engineering at the institute, The Indian Express reported.

The police along with a scientific team arrived at the spot and a case of unnatural death was registered, Bhubaneswar Police Commissioner S Dev Datta Singh told India Today. An investigation has been initiated into the death, he added.

Singh said that the students at the hostel were being questioned in the matter. “We have recovered the body and sent it to All India Institute Of Medical Sciences for autopsy,” The Indian Express quoted him as saying.

Officials in the Nepal embassy in New Delhi were informed about the death, Singh said, adding that they had contacted the parents of the student.

The Nepali embassy in New Delhi said that it was in contact with the institute, the Odisha government, the Indian government and the state police to get more information about the incident. The diplomatic mission said it had insisted that the incident be investigated and that the safety of Nepali students at the university should be guaranteed.

India’s Ministry of External Affairs said that New Delhi takes the safety of international students very seriously. The ministry added that it was in contact with Nepali authorities, the Odisha government and the university “to ensure real-time communication and coordination” in the matter.

This was the second death of a Nepali student at the institute in less than three months. On February 16, a 20-year-old student from the neighbouring country was found dead in the university hostel. She was believed to have died by suicide due to a suspected “strained relationship” and the harassment that she allegedly faced from a male batchmate on campus.

A day after her body was found, the Bhubaneswar Police arrested a 21-year-old man from Lucknow, accusing him of having blackmailed the Nepali student.

The student’s death had triggered tensions on campus. About 500 Nepali students at the university claimed that they had been forcibly evicted from campus on February 17 for protesting their batchmate’s death.

As protests escalated, the university administration had announced that the campus was closed for Nepali students, instructing them to vacate immediately, according to reports. Subsequently, Nepali students were told to board buses and were dropped at several railway stations for them to return home.

However, the order asking students to vacate the campus was revoked on February 17 amid pressure as the incident had triggered a diplomatic row between Kathmandu and New Delhi.

A case was also registered against Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology officials for allegedly manhandling students from Nepal who were protesting the incident.