An investigation has begun into the death of a sex worker who was allegedly thrown from the 30th floor of an apartment building on Friday night in Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province.

Police confirmed the woman was a prostitute and that she was with three foreigners in the apartment that night, Guangzhou-based New Express reported today.

A neighbor, who was identified as Wang, told the newspaper that the three foreigners wanted to pay only one combined fee after she served all of them, which caused a dispute ending with the woman being thrown out the window by the trio.

Police said a quarrel must have taken place, but that it was too soon to conclude the woman was thrown out the window.

The room on the 30th floor of the 33-story building was locked by police pending their investigation, the newspaper said.

One of the foreigners rented the room, but never registered at a local housing exchange center, according to the newspaper.

A security guard told the newspaper that the foreigners were drunk and that they brought the woman, who was also drunk, back at midnight.

Earlier media reports said the woman fell from a window and landed on a girder between the 11th and 12th floors. It is not clear if the woman was still alive when she fell, the report said.

Firefighters retrieved her corpse the next day.

(Shanghai Daily April 8, 2008)