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A stunning supermodel hailed as 'the next big thing' has plunged nine-floors to her death in an apparent suicide.

Striking Vogue cover star Ruslana Korshunova, 20, is thought to have jumped to her death from her swanky apartment in downtown New York.

Onlookers only realised that the model, who had been dubbed 'fashion's muse of the moment,' had plummeted to her death when they heard the shocking loud noise of her body hitting concrete at about 2.30pm Saturday.

'All I saw was something moving out of the corner of my eye, and then boom,' said Steve Metzger, 36. "It sounded like a bass drum when she hit the ground.'

A worker for the local electrical company only giving his name as Patrick, 32, said: 'I heard what sounded like a gunshot or a bomb or an explosion.

'Her arms were crushed. Her head was on the left side and blood was coming out in a pool.'

Ahmed Saad, 22, who has a food cart nearby, said: 'I turned around just as she was about 3 feet off the ground and then, boom, she hit.'

Korshunova was from Kazakhstan and has been on the cover of numerous magazines including French Elle and Russian Vogue.

She has also been featured in ads for DKNY, Vera Wang and Christian Dior among others and was hailed as "the next big thing" in a profile in Vogue three years ago.

Police said there were no signs of a struggle in the apartment.

The window from which she fell had a balcony, which had construction netting around it that appeared to have been cut.

The model was shoeless and dressed in blue jeans and a purple tank top when she fell to her death.

Close friends were so shocked they refused to believe it was suicide.

'There's no way she would have killed herself,' said friend Kira Titeneva, breaking down in tears. 'She loved life so much.

'She was my best friend. I talked to her Friday night and we were talking all the gossip.'

She added: 'She was like an angel. She was just working, working, working.'

Another close friend, who asked not to be named, said: "She's one of the sweetest, nicest people you'll ever meet.

'I'm still in shock. The world lost a great person.' The friend said that Korshunova had just returned from a modelling gig in Paris and seemed to be "on top of the world".

'There were no signs,' he said. 'That's what's driving me crazy. I don't see one reason why she would do that.'

Korshunova, who had been sending money back to her parents in Kazakhstan, was in love with her life in New York.

'She really liked New York,' said the friend. 'People made her feel comfortable here.'

Korshunova's doorman, Mahmoud Nakeeb, 45, said the model seemed happy when she came home about 4 a.m. Saturday.

'She came in this morning, she smiled, no sense of depression,' said Mahmoud Nakeeb, 45.

'She was a very sweet girl, always smiling, never depressed-looking.' Nakeeb said the green-eyed Korshunova was very down-to-earth, often dressed in simple pants and shorts. He had no clue she was an international model.

'I feel bad,' he said. 'My heart is broken. She was beautiful, beautiful.'

Korshunova's elite modelling agency, IMG, was grappling with the tragedy last night and gathering information about her death and work schedule.

'We're shocked and our heart goes out to her family,' said spokesman Zach Eichman.The 5 ft 9 model was discovered in 2003 when she posed for a magazine feature on her German language club in Kazakhstan.

She was signed to Models 1 when booker Debbie Jones spotted the article and tracked her down.

During her career, the long-haired beauty modelled for some of the world's biggest fashion houses, including DKNY, Betsey Johnson, Marc Jacobs, Nina Ricci, Christian Dior and Vera Wang.

She also graced the covers of Russian Vogue and French Elle and was known as the 'Russian Rapunzel' for her long locks.

In 2005, she was dubbed 'fashion's muse of the moment' by the Times.

In the months leading up to her death, she posted a series of emotionally-revealing poems and statements on her social networking page.

Three months ago, she wrote: 'I'm so lost. Will I ever find myself'

And in January, she wrote: 'It hurts, as if someone took a part of me, tore it out, mercilessly stomped all over and threw it out.

'My dream is to fly. Oh, my rainbow it is too high.'