AN ELTHAM father was horrified to discover the body of a man hanging from a tree outside his house on Sunday morning (December 1).

Police and London Ambulance Service staff were called to Rancliffe Gardens at 7.53am to reports of a man hanging from a tree. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Resident Jerry Meade, 45, says his wife alerted him to a commotion outside the house where he saw the terrible scene under a tree where the neighbourhood’s children usually play.

The father-of-five said: “I peeped out and we later realized there was a boy hanging from the tree. It was a very very horrible experience.

“I have never seen anything like that before. I was so shocked.

“Right in front of somebody’s house. It is an area where kids play under the tree.”

A Met Police spokesman said: “We were called at 7.53am to a man hanging from a tree. Officers and London Ambulance Service attended but the man was pronounced dead at the scene.

“The death is not being treated as suspicious.”