AFP – British singer Liam Payne, a former member of the best-selling boy band One Direction, died on Wednesday aged 31 after plunging from the third floor of a Buenos Aires hotel, police and emergency responders said.
It was not immediately clear if the fall was accidental. Payne had spoken publicly about struggles with alcohol, and police said they responded to a report of “an aggressive man who may be under the influence”.
Minutes after the news of Payne’s death broke, distraught fans – most in their 20s and 30s – gathered near the scene in the Argentine capital, where medical teams were at work.
“The news hit me hard,” fan Pilar Bilik, 27, said outside the hotel.
“So upsetting to hear the news of @LiamPayne passing. Sending love and condolences to his family & loved ones. RIP my friend,” reality star and businesswoman Paris Hilton wrote on social media with a crying emoji.
Police said in a statement that “Liam James Payne, composer and guitarist, former member of the band One Direction, died today after falling from the third floor of a hotel.” Head of the Buenos Aires emergency medical service Alberto Crescenti told local television that there had been “no possibility of resuscitation”.
Crescenti said emergency personnel rushed to the Casa Sur hotel in the city’s Palermo neighbourhood after an emergency call was made at 5.04pm local time.
They arrived seven minutes later and “verified the death of this man, who we later learnt was a singer”.
Payne appeared to have suffered a fracture at the base of his skull from the fall that Crescenti said was from “about 13 or 14 metres”.
The United Kingdom’s foreign office confirmed it was in contact with Argentine authorities “regarding reports of the death of a British man”, but declined to identify the man or comment further.
Argentine media outlets reported on what they said was an emergency call from a hotel manager reporting a guest “on drugs and destroying the room”.
The manager reportedly told the operator the guest “has a balcony, and we are afraid they might do something to put their life at risk”.
The Buenos Aires Security Ministry said in a statement that when officers arrived, the hotel manager reported “the death of a man who had jumped from the balcony of his room”.
The Clarin newspaper published photos of what it said was the interior of Payne’s room, with white powder seen on a table next to a piece of aluminum foil and a lighter, and a television with a broken screen.
A body was removed from the hotel around 8.30pm local time by fire truck, as fans cried and applauded solemnly.
