HORROR: Man is found dead in street... and police fear he was an illegal immigrant stowaway who had been clinging to a plane

A man found dead in a street could have been a stowaway who plunged thousands of feet to his death from a passing aeroplane, police revealed today.

The body of the man, thought to be in his 30s and from North Africa, was found on a car parked in a residential road near London Heathrow Airport by shocked residents at 7:55am yesterday morning.

Locals in Mortlake, south west London, said the man had suffered multiple injuries and parts of his body had flown up to 20ft away ‘like a melon being whacked’ - but nobody else was injured. 

Mortlake, an affluent suburb in the capital which lies on the south bank of the River Thames near Barnes and Kew Gardens, is around 10 miles away from the airport and on the flight path.

Billy Watson, 26, Mortlake resident who lives opposite where the man fell, saw the body ‘all twisted up’ and believed it belonged to someone of Albanian or Moroccan origin. He said: ‘His head was twisted one way and one of his legs was the wrong way round. His hip had popped out and one of his arms was behind him the wrong way.

‘Bits of his body were just everywhere, and the police were putting their cones by them. The bits had spread about 20 to 30ft away and there was a bit of him in front of my car.

‘He was wearing blue jeans, white trainers and a dark jumper. There was a big pool of blood coming from his head. No-one was around him when I first saw him.

He also said ‘It has been a bit sombre and it's quite creepy. It was a good six hours before it was all clean. The council (employee) had to come and clean it and he just had a broom and a bucket.’

'Bits of his body were just everywhere, and the police were putting their cones by them. The bits had spread about 20 to 30ft away'

The only pieces of evidence left on the scene today were dark smears on the pavement where the blood was cleared up and a bunch of lilies and a rose left by neighbours to mark the spot.

A 58-year-old man who lives one door down from where the body was found but did not wish to be named, added: ‘No one saw him fall because it was early on a Sunday morning.

‘But just imagine a melon being whacked and that is how he was. He was face down with his feet by the wall and his head by the kerb. There was a lot of blood. I just felt sorry for the guy.’

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: ‘We were called to reports of a dead body found in the road. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

‘We are still waiting on the postmortem results and an identification. One line of inquiry is that he was a possible stowaway on a plane.’