A Johns Hopkins University student has killed an intruder with a samurai sword in his garage in the eastern city of Baltimore, US.

The student, one of the four Hopkins students living in the house, encountered a man when he noticed the garage door was open and went in to investigate.

He told police that he had asked the man to get out of the garage, but the man had accosted him, AP reported.

The student was forced to defend himself with the sword, almost cutting off the man's left hand and inflicting a severe wound on his upper body. The man, whose name has not been released by police, died on the scene.

Police says the intruder, who had been arrested on burglary charges, had been released Saturday from a Baltimore County jail.

Baltimore police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said on Tuesday that two laptops and a Sony PlayStation had been stolen from the same house the previous day.

TE/HGH