October 17, 2024 | 3:52pm
MANILA, Philippines — Fans of British singer and former One Direction member Liam Payne descended upon the hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he died to light candles for the artist.
Payne died after plunging from the third floor of the Casa Sur hotel in the Argentine capital’s Palermo neighborhood, police and emergency responders reported. He was 31 years old.
Minutes after the news of his death broke, distraught fans — most in their 20s and 30s — and onlookers gathered near the scene while medical teams were at work.
“The news hit me hard,” said one 27-year-old fan Pilar Bilik, while a younger Lena Duek said, “I feel like it’s a part of adolescence lost.”
Duek added she had been hoping for One Direction, whose music was the soundtrack of her teen years, to reunite.
Related: One Direction’s Liam Payne falls to death at Argentina hotel
The boy band went on an indefinite hiatus in 2016, a year after Zayn Malik formally left the group, leaving Payne, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, and Niall Horan to release one more album.
Payne announced he was working on a solo album that same year, following in the footsteps of his fellow members.
In 2017, he welcomed a son with his then-partner Cheryl Cole, a British singer and television personality.
According to Billboard magazine, Payne was in Buenos Aires attending a concert of Horan’s earlier this month. — with reports from Agence France-Presse
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