Barely a day after a girl student of an engineering college was beaten to death by a log in the classroom by an alleged spurned lover, a 24-year-old lady teacher died on Wednesday, after she was brutally attacked in a church in Tuticorin district. The killer later committed suicide at his residence.

Police said that the incident occurred in the morning of Wednesday, when the victim, Francina, was praying at the church near her school, in Indira Nagar, Tuticorin. The accused, identified as Seegan Janistan (24), entered the church and attacked the victim continuously with billhook, on the upper parts of her body, and fled the scene.

The victim was rushed to the Tuticorin Government Hospital, but she died without responding to treatment.

After registering the case, the police went through the CCTV recordings of cameras installed in the church, and the statements given by the eyewitnesses at the church. When the police rounded up the house where the culprit lived, at Mannal Street, to arrest him, he was found hanging.

Initial investigations revealed that Seegan, a crane operator at a private firm in Tuticorin Harbour, was following the victim for more than a year. But Francina did not show any interest, and also rejected his advances.

When Seegan came to know recently that Francina had got engaged to someone else, he assaulted her and then killed himself.