More young people commit suicide in South India than anywhere else in the world.

Suicide accounts for half to three-quarters of all deaths in young women and a quarter of deaths in young men in the region.

'We have identified rates of suicide that are several fold higher than those reported anywhere in the world, especially in young women,' Dr Anuradha Bose of the Christian Medical College in Vellore, Tamil Nadu, reported in a study in the prestigious medical journal, The Lancet.

There are 148 suicides per 100,000 young women and 58 per 100,000 young men, compared to the average suicide rate worldwide of 14.5.

There is a need to recognise adolescent suicide as a major public health problem, Bose added.

Suicide is a leading cause of death in adolescents worldwide. In 2000, around 815,000 young people took their own lives