A teenage woman has died after plunging from the 17th floor of a block of flats during a police raid in south-east London, the Metropolitan police said.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said officers went to an address in Mulgrave road, Woolwich, at 9.30am on Tuesday to carry out an arrest inquiry.

"Shortly after the officers entered the flat, a woman ? who is believed to be 18 ? fell from a bedroom window on the 17th floor," he said.

"She was pronounced dead at the scene."

The spokesman said a formal identification of the body had yet to be made, and that a postmortem examination would be scheduled in due course.

He added that a man had been arrested by officers "on suspicion of assisting an offender", and was in custody at a south London police station.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) has been informed of the death ? as has the Metropolitan police service directorate of professional standards, which is investigating the incident.