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Kingdom — Fans mourning Liam Payne’s death turned out across Britain and beyond at organised vigils Sunday, with at least 1,000 gathering in central London to pay tribute to the former One Direction star.
It came four days after Payne died aged 31 following a fall from the balcony of his Buenos Aires hotel room, prompting an outpouring of grief and condolences from family, former bandmates, fans and others.
Investigators have said he appeared to have been “going through an episode of substance abuse”.
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Those at the London memorial at the Peter Pan statue in Hyde Park were encouraged in social media posts to bring “flowers, letters, balloons, pictures” and did not disappoint.
Gathering in the rain under umbrellas bearing those things and more, the crowd of mainly young people sang One Direction songs after also standing in silence for periods.
“He was such a big part of our childhood — we just came to pay our respect,” student Katie Etchells, 20, wearing a One Direction t-shirt, told AFP.
She was one of many who said that they at first thought word of his death was “fake news”, calling the realisation it was true “very upsetting”.
