Police have arrested a man in his 60s on suspicion of murder after finding the body of a woman in a terraced house on the edge of New Malden and Motspur Park.

A police spokesman said: "We were called at 1.17pm to reports of an incident at an address on Stanley Avenue. 

"We sent a single responder in a car and an ambulance crew to the scene.

"Sadly, a woman was dead at the scene.

"A man was taken to hospital".

Forensics teams in blue suits entered the house through the front door at about 5.50pm wearing gloves and their feet covered with plastic bags.

Police were guarding the house which was taped off across the empty driveway.

All the curtains were drawn but lights were emanating on upstairs from a window above the front door.

Neighbours were comforting each other over the incident.

The couple said to have been living in the house were believed to have lived there for more than 20 years.

Bentley Golding, 23, a television salesman who lives opposite the house, said: "I finished work at about 1pm and I saw all the police..there was probably about four or five cars, lots of old bill. Then I saw them wheel him out.

"He had some red on his head, he looked like he had been hit by something. He was strapped into the chair and slumped over. There were only two people who lived there.

"It's the last thing I expected its crazy. They kept themselves to themselves."

A neighbour who lives nearby, but did not want to be named, said of the people who live in the house: "The lady was a big woman with red hair.

"The man was a little fellow with glasses. He was a bit depressive a friend of mine told me. He said he thought they were retired."

Another man who has just moved in opposite the house said: "It’s a surprise. We saw the guy being wheeled out.

"He had a blanket on him and was old and bald. We were just pottering about waiting for the BT man."

Aqueel Rayman, 48, an IT worker who lives in Stanley Avenue with his three children, said: "It is painful that something has happened. It is very quiet here."

Surrey Comet:

Police in Stanley Avenue this afternoon 

London Ambulance were called to the £400,000 property in Stanley Avenue, which backs onto the Beverley Brook running behind Coombe Boys School.

Stanley Avenue is a quiet residential road in the Motspur Park area near to Fulham FC's training ground, next to the A3. It is on the border of Kingston upon Thames and Merton, which includes Wimbledon and Raynes Park.

Surrey Comet:

Two police cars and an ambulance were outside the property this afternoon 

Do you know more? Contact Louisa on 020 8722 6335, or email louisa.clarence@london.newsquest.co.uk