Liam Payne, the former One Direction star, has died aged 31 in Argentina after falling from the third floor of a hotel in Buenos Aires, police say.
In a statement, police said they discovered Payne’s body after an emergency crew responded to an call in the upscale neighbourhood of Palermo on Wednesday.
On Thursday, police in Buenos Aires said a preliminary autopsy suggests Liam Payne died from external and internal bleeding injuries.
The police inspected the area where Payne fell, and found items including alcohol and a phone. Medication was found in his room.
Payne had risen to global fame as part of the much-loved boyband created on the X Factor TV show in 2010, along with Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan and Zayn Malik.
According to police in Buenos Aires, officers at the scene were initially responding to reports “of an aggressive man who may have been under the effects of drugs and alcohol”.
When they arrived at the hotel, officials were told a loud sound had been heard in an interior courtyard. Soon after, they discovered the body there. A police investigation was then launched.
Emergency medical services director Alberto Crescenti told local media that Payne had suffered “serious injuries” and that an autopsy will be carried out.
Mr Crescenti declined to answer questions about the circumstances of Payne’s fall from the balcony.
The star’s body has been transferred to a morgue in the city.
Police in Buenos Aires confirmed on Thursday that an inspection of the scene where Payne fell has been carried out on the hotel’s ground floor.
They said that a bottle of whiskey, a lighter, and a mobile phone were found.
Police said “everything indicates that the musician was alone when the fall happened”, and that he had died at the scene and there were no injuries that suggested a third party had been involved.
In the hotel room where Payne was staying, staff found “total disorder” including “various items broken.”
They said this included several packets of medication, including Clonazepam, as well as over-the-counter medications.
A notebook and passport were also found at the scene.
Evidence and finger prints have been collected and the room’s balcony has also been inspected to establish access to it.
Five witness statements were taken by the police on the night, three from hotel employees and two from women who had been in the room with Payne earlier on, but were not there at the time of the fall.
Payne posted on Snapchat just hours before the incident, saying: “It’s a lovely day here in Argentina” but the video was from earlier in the week where he had spent time with his girlfriend Kate Cassidy.
