Liam Payne was acting erratically and had to be escorted back to his hotel room before plunging to his death – with staff making a panicked call to police.

The former One Direction star fell from the third floor into the courtyard of the Casa Sur Hotel in Buenos Aires yesterday before medics confirmed his death. He was 31.

Police in Argentina were contacted by a member of hotel staff who reported ‘an aggressive man who may have been under the effects of drugs and alcohol ‘.

Shortly afterwards, workers heard a loud sound in the hotel’s courtyard before the Wolverhampton-born singer’s body was discovered just after 5pm local time.

The star was said to have been ‘acting erratically in the hotel lobby and smashed his laptop’ before he ‘had to be carried back to his room’, according to local media.

Payne rose to stardom aged 16 after forming boy band One Direction on The X Factor in 2010 alongside Zayn Malik, Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan and Harry Styles.

They were seen lighting candles and adorning the side of the road with flowers in an impromptu vigil as they paid tribute to the beloved music star.

Police in Argentina had received a call from a worker at the hotel urgently requesting help with an intoxicated guest, according to audio related to the case obtained from the Buenos Aires security ministry.

The worker said: ‘When he is conscious he is destroying the entire room and we need you to send someone.’

Emergency medical services director Alberto Crescenti said Payne had suffered ‘very serious injuries after falling from a third floor into an internal courtyard’.

‘We verified his identity using the passport he had,’ he added.

Mr Crescenti told Argentine newspaper Clarin that ‘the team saw that he apparently had a fracture at the base of the skull’.