The father of late One Direction pop star Liam Payne has made an emotional visit to Argentina to identify his son’s body and visit the hotel where the singer died.
Geoff Payne landed in Buenos Aires in the early hours of Friday morning at around 6am, according to reporTS.
After briefly stopping at a hotel in the capital, the late star’s father travelled to the City Judicial Morgue on Viamonte Street to see his son’s body and formally identify it, ahead of the repatriation of the body.
Reports said Payne Snr is being accompanied by British diplomatic staff and by a trusted security guard who has previously worked with One Direction and the Payne family.
Liam, a global star thanks to his time in One Direction, tragically lost his life on Wednesday evening after plunging from the third-floor balcony at the Casa Sur Hotel in the Palmero neighbourhood of Buenos Aires.
The 31-year-old, a member of one of Britain’s most successful pop groups, suffered fatal injuries in the fall and died almost immediately after impact.
Hotel visit
Fans have left a mound of letters, flowers and pictures of the singer at a makeshift shrine outside the hotel where he died.
After leaving the morgue early Friday evening, Payne Snr left the morgue in a vehicle and travelled to the Hotel CasaSur.
He was greeted with a thick media scrum upon arrival, with reporters and camera operators crowding the few paces he walked to the door.
Fans jeered the media and attempted to block the cameras as Liam’s father entered.
Some time later, the father went outside to look at the tributes, flowers, messages and photos left by fans.
In contrast to the scenes just an hour before, everyone present fell silent, giving the mourning father space.
Surrounded by a hundred or so people, Payne Snr stopped to read messages – several in English – and kissed some photos.
Before re-entering the hotel, he scanned the mostly female faces in the crowd and silently mouthed: “Thank you.”
As he re-entered the hotel, fans embraced each other and broke into tears.
Shortly after, the crowd broke into a spontaneous applause.
Tragic death
Liam Payne suffered “multiple traumas” and “internal and external haemorrhaging” after falling from the hotel balcony on Wednesday night, an autopsy concluded.
