A 19-year-old Penn State student fell about 55 feet from a sixth-floor window in Beaver Hall just before midnight on St. Patrick's Day, a Penn State spokesman said.

After falling, Ryan P. Walton, a resident of Porter Hall, was found lying in grass, dirt and gravel on the northwest side of Beaver Hall in the Pollock Halls quad area.

He was flown to Altoona hospital by a medical helicopter, having suffered significant internal injuries, including injuries to his arms, pelvic area and back, Penn State spokesman Bill Mahon said in a press release.

According to Penn State's released statement, Walton was at a party in a supplemental room on the sixth floor of Beaver Hall. More than two dozen people were in the room, and police reported finding a significant amount of beer and liquor.

Residence Life staff initially responded to the room because of noise. When occupants of the room “repeatedly refused to cooperate” with resident assistants, Penn State University Police were called to the scene at about 11 p.m.

When police officers arrived on the scene and began to question some of the room's occupants in the hallway, Walton “apparently decided to climb through the window,” according to Penn State's statement.

Witnesses said Walton tied a sheet to either a sleeping bag or a blanket. He then tied one end of the constructed rope to a bed in the room and draped the other end out the window. According to Penn State's statement, the screen of the window had been pushed out, but it did not indicate whether Walton had pushed the screen.

Police reported that Walton attempted to go down the side of the building but “did not even make it to the fifth floor before he fell to the ground,” according to Penn State's statement.

Walton's condition at Altoona hospital is unknown. He was still alive Saturday morning, Mahon said.

According to the Penn State police crime log, an officer handed out five underage citations on the sixth floor of Beaver Hall, during which he was alerted that a student had fallen from a window. Police said more underage charges are pending.

Last night, outside her fifth-floor Beaver Hall window, Simone Tukeva (freshman-biobehavioral health) said she saw police taking pictures and staring up at the building. Her room faces the quad where Walton fell.

“The place where the bikes are kept was roped off with police tape,” Tukeva said. “There were three policeman standing out there taking pictures of where he fell, and they were looking up at the window, trying to see what had happened.”

Tukeva said she came back to her dorm at about 12:30 a.m. On Saturday, she said the mood around her dorm was somber.

“People are just like 'I can't believe that happened,' ” Tukeva said. “My roommate was really upset last night. Somebody was talking to my RA and said she was really upset, too.”

Calls to the Penn State police, Residence Life and the sixth-floor resident assistant of Beaver Hall were deferred to the Public Information office.