Suicides within a span of 150 minutes by three middle-aged people from a multistoried residential building in the heart of Lucknow on Monday have puzzled local cops.

Bodies of two middle-aged women and a man were found lying in the open compound of the 11-storied government-owned building known as OCR Complex.

While the body of the first victim -- a shabbily dressed lone woman -- was discovered in a smashed state at about 11 am at one end of the building, the other the bodies if a couple were found in another part of the compound around 1.30 pm.

Apparently, the couple took the fatal leap from the building while cops were on the campus investigating the first suicide.

This was not the first time when this building -- Old Councilor's Residence Complex -- has witnessed a suicide. Nearly half a dozen cases were reported from the building.

As in all the previous occasions, this time too there was no eyewitness.

"No one saw any of the three jumping; people came to know of it only after the bodies fell one after the other on the brick-paved open compound of the complex," Lucknow senior superintendent of police B P Jogdand said.

"While the first victim looked like one from the lower social strata, the couple was clearly middle-class," he said.

Ruling out murder, he added that none of the deceased was a resident of the building.

"The lift operator who could recall dropping the couple on the 10th floor, said he had never seen them before; so it was quite obvious that they were not living in the OCR complex," said Jogdand.