A TEENAGER has died after falling from the fifth floor of a New York apartment building.

Imogen Roche, a 15-year-old high school student, was at a house party in Manhattan’s Tribeca neighbourhood on Sunday night when she climbed onto the building’s fire escape, where she slipped and fell onto the foot path below, theNew York Post reports.

Sources told the Post Imogen had climbed onto the fire escape around 11pm in an attempt to access the window of a locked room in the apartment because her mobile phone was inside.

The owner of the apartment, in a building on Reade Street near West Broadway, was not home at the time, and some of the teens at the party were drinking, according to law enforcement sources.

Imogen landed on her back and was rushed to Bellevue Hospital Centre, where she died.

Police are investigating the tragic death, and trying to determine if alcohol was involved.

An aspiring actress, Imogen attended Beacon High, an elite Manhattan school.

She had acted in some short online videos, including one in which she recited lines from the play Spring Awakening.

Her father, Theseus Roche, works as a director of after-school programs for Manhattan Youth. He’s a writer, actor and a member of the Screen Actors Guild.

The parent of a teen who had attended Beacon High with Imogen described her as “beautiful” with a “wonderful, infectious personality”.

“She was very talented and super smart. She’s an actor, she dances. And she’s an only child … She’s so nice to people.”