A 19-year-old college student was stabbed to death near the Tambaram railway station here on Thursday by a youth who later attempted to kill himself, said police.

Seeing the grisly incident at about 1.30 pm today, commuters informed the police who rushed to the spot to find the college student in a pool of blood. Her assailant was found unconscious.

The police team immediately arranged for an ambulance and rushed the couple to the Government hospital at Chromepet, where the doctors declared the girl as "brought dead", police said.

The attacker is being hospitalised, a senior police official said and added that the motive is yet to be established. "It appears that the man knew her. There was a conversation between the two and all of a sudden he whipped up a knife and stabbed her. Then, he tried to commit suicide by sitting his throat," the official said. There has been speculations that the two might have been a couple. 

Thursday's incident sent chills down the spine of the locals reminding them of the horrifying murder of a 24-year-old techie Swathi in the morning of June 24, 2016, at the Nungambakkam railway station here by a youth Ramkumar from Tirunelveli. Days after he was arrested Ramkumar allegedly killed himself in prison.