A newly released emergency call showed the final moments that led up to former One Direction star Liam Payne’s death from a hotel balcony in Argentina.
A desk manager for the CasaSur Palermo Hotel in Buenos Aires made a distressed call to the police, saying there was a guest who was “destroying everything in his room” and seemed to be “on drugs and alcohol.”
Highlights
- Liam Payne was found dead after falling from Buenos Aires hotel balcony.
- A hotel manager reported Payne was on drugs, and destroying the room.
- Emergency services arrived after a loud courtyard sound was heard.
Workers had also reportedly heard a loud sound in the courtyard before Payne’s body was discovered just after 5pm local time.
An emergency call from a hotel in Buenos Aires detailed the chilling final moments before former One Direction star Liam Payne was found dead
Image credits: Liam Payne Official
“Hello, good morning. I just called and my line got disconnected,” the manager Esteban said in Spanish in a call obtained and translated by Sky News. “I’m calling [from] CasaSur hotel in Palermo, Costa Rica 6032.”
“What is happening, sir?” replied the operator.
“We have a guest drunk on drugs and alcohol,” stated the manager. “When he’s conscious, he’s breaking everything in the room.”
Image credits: Booking
After confirming the location of the hotel, Esteban said, “We need to send someone with urgency because I don’t know if the guest’s life is in danger. Because he’s in a room with a balcony. And we’re afraid he could do something that threatens his life.”
“How long has he been there? Is it a long stay hotel?” asked the operator.
“The guest has been there for the past three days.”
“Resources” were sent immediately to the scene following the phone call
Image credits: SkyNews
Emergency medical services were requested right after the police were notified of a fall around 5:07pm, reported La Nacion.
Payne died on the scene and authorities said “there was no possibility of resuscitating him.” His body was put into an ambulance and driven away.
The details around the former One Direction star’s death are still foggy, and it isn’t publicly known whether his fall was an accident or not.
However, Security Ministry of Buenos Aires representative Pablo Policicchio declared the musician had “thrown himself from the balcony of his room.”
Eyewitnesses had also reported Payne had been acting erratically in the hotel lobby. The pop star allegedly smashed his laptop and had to be escorted back to his room.
Liam Payne had posted on Snapchat just hours before his fatal fall
Image credits: SkyNews
In a since-deleted story, the singer wrote he was having a “lovely day in Argentina” as the camera later panned to his girlfriend Katie Cassidy, who had flown back to Miami just two days before Payne’s death.
The couple had been in the country to see his former bandmate Niall Horan perform on October 2, but then stayed longer than initially planned.
Payne told fans in an Instagram story that he had things “to square up” against Horan but didn’t get into the details of it.
The pop star had risen to fame as a member of the British boy band One Direction
Image credits: Liam Payne
Payne first appeared on the British television series The X Factor as a solo artist and was quickly put in a group with Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik, and Niall Horan.
The five achieved global success, being called one of the definitive pop groups of their era and becoming the first band in history of the US Billboard chart to see their first four albums debut at No. 1, according to The Guardian.
Following One Direction’s hiatus in 2016, Payne pursued a solo career as he signed with Republic Records in North America.
Fans shared their reactions on the singer’s sudden death
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The hotel staff who said “Good morning,” and to send help urgently, but then no one came till after 5pm when he was already dead? Not the hotel’s fault at all, the cops screwed up bad.