British singer Liam Payne, a member of the best-selling boy band One Direction, died Wednesday aged 31 after plunging from the third floor of Buenos Aires hotel.
British singer Liam Payne, a member of the best-selling boy band One Direction, died Wednesday aged 31 after plunging from the third floor of Buenos Aires hotel, police and emergency responders said.
It was not immediately clear if the fall was accidental or whether Payne, who has spoken publicly of struggles with alcohol abuse, may have been intoxicated.
Minutes after the news of his death broke, distraught fans — most in their 20s and 30s — and onlookers 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.
A police statement announced 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.”
The singer had suffered “very serious injuries incompatible with life as a result of his fall”, the head of the city’s SAME emergency medical service, Alberto Crescenti, told local television, adding “there was no possibility of resuscitation.”
Crescenti said emergency personnel rushed to the Casa Sur hotel in the city’s Palermo neighborhood after an emergency call was made at 17:04 local time (2004 GMT).
