Devastated fans descended on the CasaSur Hotel in Buenos Aires last night after news spread of the shocking death of British pop star Liam Payne.
The former One Direction singer was pronounced dead Wednesday evening after falling from a third-floor balcony inside the Palermo hotel.
Authorities have not been able to determine if the fall was accidental. Local media reported that witnesses had seen Payne intoxicated prior to the tragedy.
But those details were far from the minds of Payne’s fans on Wednesday night, who came from across the capital to mourn the loss of their idol.
Most were in disbelief at the news. Many wept for the loss of their idol.
Rocio, 27, works at an advertising agency in the neighbourhood. Choking back tears, she said Payne was “part of my teenage years and this is close to my heart because of that.”
“No-one even knew that he was here [in Buenos Aires]. At first I didn’t believe it because only Argentine news [outlets] were posting it,” she told the Times.
Ricardo, another fan of Liam and One Direction, works in the building next door to the hotel and was caught up in the commotion.
“At like 5.20pm, I heard an ambulance and firefighters, so I was like ‘Oh no what’s happening.’
“Half an hour later I go on Twitter and I just search ‘Liam Payne,’ and the first thing I see is literally the front of my office,” said the Venezuelan, who moved to Buenos Aires last year.
“I was a huge fan of him, so I don’t know, it’s hard. Especially because it was known for a while that he wasn’t in very good shape.”
Outside the hotel, the atmosphere was sombre and heavy. Most of the people in the crowd seemed to be in their 20s, and there was a mix of true fans and curious bystanders.
But the evening drew on, there was an influx of reporters with cameras and bright lights in front of the hotel. Many were taking photos and laughing and talking loudly, a contrast with the sight of young fans crying and mourning.
US citizen Max, 20, is visiting Buenos Aires with his family and boyfriend.
“I wanted to come here kind of out of morbid curiosity,” he confessed. “I didn’t expect to see anything gruesome and I didn’t want to, but I kind of wanted to see if there was a crowd forming.”
Max, who was born in Colorado, added: “I’ve never been in a situation like this and I wanted to see the organic way people kind of react to this.”
Twenty-year-old Agostina travelled from Caballito to Palermo to visit the hotel.
“I love One Direction, as probably everyone [here does] and it’s really shocking. You don’t expect it to happen so soon,” she said
“I didn’t even know he was still here, I knew he was here to see [bandmate] Niall [Horan perform] but I thought he left already.
“I looked at it online and I was like, ‘I don’t believe it.’ I just stopped in the street and stood there for like 20 minutes, just processing,” said Agostina.
As she spoke, more and more fans arrived, laying flowers and lighting candles at the hotel’s front door.
After a while, some fans began singing ‘Night Changes,’ a much-loved One Direction song and a reminder of the fandom that brought them together to mourn their idol.
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