Hong Kong  - A successful Hong Kong architect fell 19 floors to his death with a childhood friend as he tried to stop him from committing suicide, a news report said Wednesday.

Leung Kam-kong, 28, had been honoured at an awards ceremony hours before the tragedy Tuesday morning, the South China Morning Post reported.

Police sources told the newspaper that Leung went to the aid of his friend Chan Kei-tai, 27, who was suicidal because he was jobless and had split with his girlfriend.

Leung went to a block of flats where Chan had lived as a child and fell to his death as he tried to stop his friend from committing suicide by leaping from a 19th-floor corridor.

"One of the two men tried to prevent the other from falling," one police officer was quoted as saying. "In doing so, he fell."

The bodies of the two men were found on Hong Kong's Kwun Lung Lau estate in the city's Western district.

Hours before the men fell to their deaths, Leung, described by his boss as highly talented, won an honourable mention with colleagues at a design ceremony.

One of six children, Leung graduated with a degree in architecture from the University of Adelaide in Australia and returned to Hong Kong to work with the Chai Wan-based company Urbanage International. (dpa)