Former One Direction member Liam Payne has died at the age of 31 after falling from the third floor of a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires.
State police in Argentina confirmed the tragic news late last night, with sources claiming that the star had fallen into the courtyard of the CasaSur Hotel in the Palermo neighborhood of the country’s capital.
City ambulance service provider Alberto Crescenti later released a statement revealing that Payne had fallen approximately 40 meters (131 feet), suffering “severe injuries which were incompatible with life”.
“The alarm was raised at 5.04pm local time saying a person was lying in an internal patio at Casa Sur,” Crescenti said.
“At 5.11pm an ambulance arrived and the man was certified dead.
“Afterwards we found out he had been a famous singer. Unfortunately the injuries he had suffered as a result of the fall proved to be fatal. There was no possibility of resuscitating him.”
According to TMZ, the singer arrived in Argentina with his girlfriend Kate Cassidy on September 30. Former bandmate Niall Horan had a concert in the country earlier this month; both Payne and Cassidy attended.
TMZ say that Cassidy left Argentina on October 14 (two days before her boyfriend’s passing), with Liam later checking into the CasaSur Palermo hotel. New reports state that Payne had been behaving erratically on the day of his death, with another guest having called 911 to report an “aggressive” male in the hotel lobby.
Further details of Payne’s last days are now coming to light, with Sky News reporting that the 31-year-old was active on Snapchat just hours before his death was reported.
As per E! News, Payne shared a photo to Snapchat alongside his girlfriend on October 16. The couple could be seen posing for a mirror selfie in their swimsuits.
In the image in question, Liam offered a smile for the camera while wearing a pair of black swim trunks and a backwards, white baseball hat. Kate wore a black bikini and woven visor with black sunglasses.
The photo was reportedly posted to Snapchat on October 16, though Kate, as mentioned above, had departed Argentina two days prior.
Liam’s struggles with alcohol and prescription drug addiction have been well documented over the past few years, with the singer himself revealing in 2021 that he had harbored “severe” suicidal thoughts while on tour with One Direction.
Last year, the singer shared that he had completed a 100-day stay at a rehab facility in Louisiana.
“I just needed to take a little bit of time out for myself actually because I kind of became somebody who I didn’t really recognize anymore,” he said in a video posted to YouTube. “And I’m sure you guys didn’t either.”
“I think for me, a lot of what I said just came from the wrong place,” he went on. “I was so angry at what was going on around me that instead of taking a look inwards I decided to take it outwards.”
Alberto Crescenti has said that authorities are investigating the circumstances of his death and will be conducting an autopsy.
Payne was just 16 years old when he shot to stardom as part of One Direction, the group that garnered worldwide fame after forming on The X Factor in 2010. The band broke up in 2015, with its members going on to achieve varying levels of success as solo artists.
