Manama: A professor collapsed and died in front of his students at the University of Kuwait, the university said.

Ahmad Yousuf Al Mayal, 56, was delivering his lecture at the geography department on Tuesday when he died.

"We have lost a great professor and a pillar of knowledge who had a tremendous role in establishing the geography department at the College of Science," Faisal Maqseed, the spokesperson for the university, said, quoted by Al Aan news site.

The deceased, born in 1955, holds a university degree in geography since 1978 and worked as a teacher for the education ministry before obtaining his Master's from Eastern Illinois and a PhD from London.

He had taught at the university since May 1986.