Model Falls to Her Death From New York Flat

The fashion world was yesterday mourning a model who tumbled to her death from the ninth floor of a Manhattan apartment building just four days short of her 21st birthday.

Ruslana Korshunova had featured in advertisements for DKNY, Marc Jacobs and Christian Dior. A former Vogue covergirl, she was described by the magazine as "the next big thing" in 2005 and one profile writer dubbed her "fashion's muse of the moment".

Horrified onlookers in New York's financial district said Kazakhstan-born Korshunova plunged to the pavement from the balcony of her apartment on Saturday afternoon. There was a hole visible in construction netting around the building. A policeman and an electricity worker rushed to her side but were too late to help.

Korshunova was renowned for her green eyes and unusually long hair.

"We're shocked and our heart goes out to her family," said a spokesman for IMG, her modeling agency, which also looks after Kate Moss and Heidi Klum.

Korshunova was discovered by a booker for the British firm Models 1 who tracked her down after noticing a photograph of her in an in-flight magazine article about the Kazakh city of Almaty in 2003.

At the time of her death she had just returned from a modelling trip to Paris.

While living in New York, she was sending money back to her family in Kazakhstan.

A poem posted by Korshunova on an internet blog included the line: "Life is short, break the rules, forgive quickly, kiss slowly, love truly, laugh uncontrollably."