An “exceptional” British student has died after reportedly plunging to his death from a high-rise building in Tokyo on New Year’s Eve following an evening spent drinking with friends.

Justin Browning, 21, a third year student at Durham University, was spending a year studying at the Waseda University in Tokyo as part of his history degree when the tragedy occurred.

Mr Browning’s death was broken to his fellow students in an email from Professor Anthony Bash, a tutor at Durham University’s Hatfield College.

According to the Sunday Times, the email said: “We are not entirely clear what happened, but I have been told that Justin went to the top of a high-rise building in Tokyo to watch the new year celebrations. He became separated from his friends and tragically fell to his death.”

Professor Bash said a memorial service was being planned in Mr Browning’s memory and invited grieving students to get in touch for counselling services.

According to a blog posted by his Tokyo dorm mate, Leila Dara, Mr Browning had been drinking prior to the tragedy.

Ms Dara, a student at Exeter University also on a year abroad said that another house mate asked the dorm manager to open Mr Browning’s room as he hadn’t been seen for 14 hours.

It was then that news of the tragedy was broken to them and they were told that Mr Browning’s body had been found by a taxi driver.

She wrote: “Some of you will know that on New Year’s Eve this year, my friend Justin, who I was living with in Tokyo while both of us were on our year abroad, passed away while drunk on a night out. We have very little information other than he fell from an elevated point, such that a taxi driver heard the sound of his body hitting the floor, searched around and found him there.”

Mr Browning was a former pupil at the private Eastbourne College in East Sussex and was tipped to land a first-class degree at Durham. Professor Jo Fox, head of History, said he was “one of our very best students”.

Friends on Facebook paid tribute to the student, with some changing their profile picture to Mr Browning’s.

One of his closest friends, Seb Marlow, who went to school as well as to Durham with him, wrote: “Last week, we had to say goodbye to Justin. Someone I've known since we were 5, and someone I will miss deeply forever. I could not have asked for a better school friend, university friend, housemate, team mate, and overall best friend.”

Ms Dara posted photographs and anecdotes of some of the adventures they had shared together in Japan, describing him as a talented musician and a “mini Louis Theroux” with an “exceptional, dry sense of humour”.

She wrote: “Justin was an absolutely incredible human being. I used to tell him he was the funniest person in the dorm, and I believe that even now.”

His father, Steve, told The Sunday Times: “We are devastated by the untimely death of our beautiful and beloved son, Justin, in a tragic accident.

”Justin was a bright, committed, gentle and funny young man, much loved by all his family and friends and with such a bright future ahead of him.

“His death has affected so many people and he will stay in our hearts forever.”

Mr Browning is the fourth Durham University Student to die after a night out since 2013, following the deaths of three 19-year-old males, who were all found drowned in the River Wear.