Emergency call before fall

Liam Payne: This is what the autopsy report reveals

Liam Payne died after falling from the balcony of his hotel. The autopsy has now revealed the exact cause of death.(Bild: APA/AFP/Tolga AKMEN)

Liam Payne died of polytrauma and bleeding after falling from the third floor of a hotel in Buenos Aires. This was the conclusion of the autopsy, the public prosecutor's office announced. 

Further investigations are being carried out to confirm evidence of drug and alcohol consumption before the fall. According to the police, all indications are that the former member of the boy band One Direction was alone in his room when he fell from the balcony.

At the age of 31, Payne had fallen into the courtyard of a hotel in the Argentinian capital. According to the public prosecutor's office, he may have been going through a substance use crisis.

Room "in complete chaos"
Argentinian police found the musician's room in "complete chaos" during a search following his death, the authorities said in a statement on Thursday.

The accident happened in this hotel in Buenos Aires.(Bild: APA/AFP/Luis ROBAYO)

A bottle of whisky, a lighter and a cell phone were seized in the hotel courtyard. According to the police, they found over-the-counter medication and a sedative in the room of the luxury hotel in the trendy Palermo district. "On entering, there was complete disorder, various things were broken," they said.

Employee feared for the life of a guest
A hotel employee had previously called the emergency services because of a rioting guest. The employee stated that he feared for the man's life.

After the death of Liam Payne, fans mourned the singer outside the hotel.(Bild: AP/Natacha Pisarenko)

After the news of his death broke, fans gathered for a candlelight vigil outside the hotel. Payne had become a star as a member of the boy band One Direction ("What Makes You Beautiful"). Since 2016, he had been active as a solo artist like his former bandmates Niall Horan, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik, who had left the group a year earlier.

Band colleagues dismayed
His bandmates were still shocked by Liam Payne's death on Thursday evening. "We are completely devastated by Liam's death," said a joint statement from Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Louis Tomlinson and Niall Horan.

The band published this statement about the death of Liam Payne on their Instagram account.(Bild: instagram.com/onedirection)

The four pop stars wrote in a message on Instagram that they now needed time to process "the loss of our brother". They added: "We will miss him terribly. We love you Liam."

Harry Styles added that he was "truly devastated by Liam's passing". "His greatest joy was making other people happy and it was an honor to be by his side," the pop star emphasized on his Instagram account.

Liam "wore his heart on his sleeve", he "had a life energy that was infectious". Styles emphasized that he would "always miss" his "dear friend" Paynes.

For Horan's concert in Argentina
In August 2023, the singer ("Strip That Down") canceled his planned tour of South America at short notice due to a kidney infection. He spent a week in hospital with a "severe kidney infection", he wrote on Instagram at the time.

According to media reports, he has now traveled to Buenos Aires to attend a concert by his former bandmate Horan at the beginning of October, among other things.

Payne had spoken out about problems with his mental health in an interview with the British Guardian in 2019.

If you or someone close to you is in an exceptional mental health situation or is experiencing suicidal thoughts, please contact the mental health helpline on 142. You can find more crisis hotlines and emergency numbers HERE.