Shock gripped residents of Ubumwe Village, in the Kigali suburb of Kimihurura, on Wednesday evening when a 12-year-old Indian student took his life over poor performance in school.

According to Urbain Mwiseneza, the Kigali City Police Spokesperson, Shahin Alinejad, a pupil of Ecole Belge de Kigali, allegedly hanged himself with a waist belt after his teachers wrote a letter to his parents a day earlier complaining of his poor performance.

"We are waiting for a postmortem report, before coming to a conclusion of what could have led to his death,” Mwiseneza said.

By press time his body was still at Kacyiru Police Hospital mortuary.