Ruslana Korshunova, 20, died around 2:30 p.m. in a fall from a building on Water Street, in Manhattan's Financial District, The New York Post, the Daily News and Newsday reported. The newspapers cited unnamed officials and police.

Police said the fall was under investigation, which will find out if the model committed a suicide.

New York Local media said there was no sign of a struggle inside her apartment and that Korshunova was believed to have leaped to her death.

A friend told The New York Post, however, that Korshunova had just returned from a modelling job in Paris and seemed "on top of the world."

"There were no signs," the unidentified friend was quoted as saying. "I don't see one reason why she would do that."

Originally from the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan, Korshunova appeared in advertisements and on runways for such designers as Marc Jacobs, Nina Ricci and DKNY.

British Vogue hailed her as "a face to be excited about" in 2005.

Her big break came when modeling booker Debbie Jones noticed her while perusing an in-flight magazine article about Korushnova's hometown of Almaty, according to the Vogue report.

"She looked like something out of a fairytale!" Jones told the magazine. "We had to find her and we searched high and low until we did!"

Source: Reported By Starlink Celebrity Blog http://starlinkcelebblog.blogspot.com/