A man is believed to have dropped to his death from a plane flying over London, after his body was discovered in a residential garden on Sunday.

The man appeared to have been a stowaway, who fell from the landing gear compartment of a Kenya Airways plane on approach to Heathrow airport, London's Metropolitan Police said in a statement on Monday.

"Police were called at 15:39hrs (10:39 ET) on Sunday, 30 June to a residential address in Offerton Road, Clapham after a body was discovered in a garden," the police statement read.

"Officers attended with the London Ambulance Service. The body of a person, believed to be a man (age unknown) was found. A post-mortem examination will be carried out in due course. Police are working to establish the man's identity," it continued.

A bag, water and some food were discovered in the landing gear compartment once the place touched down at Heathrow, the police said.

While the death is not being treated as suspicious, police inquiries will continue.

In 2015, a stowaway on a British Airways plane from Johannesburg fell on a roof during the jet's approach to Heathrow. A second man who was hiding in the undercarriage of the plane was hospitalised with injuries.