Los Angeles robbery and homicide division have taken over the investigation into Michael Jackson's death.

The King of Pop has died at the age of fifty in a Los Angeles Hospital after an apparent heart attack.

But Lieutenant Greg Strank says their presence doesn't mean there is anything suspicious about his passing.

"Robbery homicide was assigned to this because of the high profile nature of it," he told assembled reporters.

"Don't read into anything as relates to my team being here. It's just that all of you being here caused the chief to think that we should handle the investigation."

Coroner Lieutenant Fred Corral told CNN Jackson, 50, was pronounced dead at 2:26pm (07:26 AEST) local time after reportedly suffering a cardiac arrest.

"I can tell you at this time that we were notified by West Los Angeles Police Department detectives that Mr Jackson was transported ... to the hospital, and upon admitting, he was unresponsive and was pronounced dead at approximately 2:26 this afternoon," Corral told CNN.

Corral said an autopsy would "most likely" be carried out on Friday but would not speculate on the exact cause of death.

"Everything is still ongoing. We will be responding to the hospital to move Mr Jackson to our facility where he will be examined to determine the cause of death," Corral said.

"As far as I'm aware, we were notified by LAPD detectives that Mr Jackson was brought in by paramedics to the hospital in full cardiac arrest and then he was later pronounced dead.

"At that point, as I said, there's no further medical history until we get and review the medical records."