Former One Direction member Liam Payne found dead in Buenos Aires

Police say 31-year-old singer, who gained fame in pop supergroup, fell to his death from a hotel in Argentina’s capital.

Liam Payne, a former member of the globally popular One Direction pop group, has died at age 31.

Police in the Argentinian capital of Buenos Aires said Payne fell from the third floor of the Casa Sur Hotel in the trendy Palermo neighbourhood on Wednesday. He sustained “extremely serious injuries” and was pronounced dead at the scene.

In a statement to The Associated Press, Pablo Policicchio, the spokesperson for the Security Ministry of the Buenos Aires municipality, said police had been called to the hotel in response to a report of an “aggressive man who could be under the influence of drugs or alcohol”.

Policicchio told the news agency that Payne “had thrown himself from the balcony of his room”. Further details were not immediately clear, and authorities are still investigating the death.

Local media in Argentina reported that Payne had been in Buenos Aires to attend the concert of his former One Direction bandmate Niall Horan.

From left, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik, Niall Horan and Liam Payne perform as the group One Direction on NBC’s Today show in 2012 [Charles Sykes/Invision/AP Photo]

In 2010, Payne and Horan auditioned separately, along with Zayn Malik, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson, for the UK singing competition The X Factor.

While none of the boys advanced individually, they were grouped together by record executive Simon Cowell and his fellow judges. They went on to become one of the most successful boy bands in history.

During the six years the members were together as a band, One Direction had six top-10 hits on the Billboard charts. The performers ultimately disbanded in 2016. Their chart-topping songs include What Makes You Beautiful, Story of My Life and Perfect.

The members of the group all went on to pursue solo careers, with Payne putting out the album LP1 in 2019.

His last release was a single in March called Teardrops.

Payne is survived by a seven-year-old son, Bear Grey Payne, whom he had with his former girlfriend, the musician Cheryl Cole.

The One Direction singer appeared to have posted on the social media platform Snapchat hours before his death on Wednesday.

He talked about riding horses and playing polo in Argentina while looking forward to returning home to see his dog.

“It’s a lovely day here in Argentina,” he said in the video.