Police were investigating on Monday whether a man whose body was found in a residential street was a stowaway who fell from a plane.
The body of the man was discovered in Portman Avenue, Mortlake, south west London, on Sunday morning.
The man, believed to be in his 30s, suffered multiple injuries. One local resident said the scene looked like a "melon being whacked."
Portman Avenue resident Joe Dodd told London's Evening Standard: "When I got up at eight, the body was still on the pavement. They had not moved it.
"We were not allowed out of our house for ages. There was police and ambulances everywhere. From where I was, it looked like he had a head injury of some kind.
"There was loads of blood everywhere, all over the street and on a car."
A local resident, who did not want to be named told the Daily Mail: "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.
"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."
Another resident, Billy Watson said: "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."
A Metropolitan Police spokeswoman said officers were called to Portman Avenue at around 7.55am yesterday "following reports of a dead body".
She said: "The death is currently being treated as unexplained. A post-mortem examination will be held in due course. Inquiries are ongoing to establish the male's identity."
She added that the theory that he might have been a stowaway who fell from a plane was "one line of inquiry".