Zayn Malik is said to be devastated after the tragic loss of One Direction star Liam Payne. The news of Liam’s passing came out on Wednesday, after a fatal fall from the third floor of a Buenos Aires hotel.
Liam was catapulted to fame alongside Louis Tomlinson, Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, and Niall Horan in the hit group One Direction, having been assembled by Simon Cowell during the 2011 season of The X Factor.
Sources close to Zayn, who have been working with the 31-year-old artist in the US, said that Malik is utterly shell-shocked by the death of his old friend. These confidants divulged to Mail Online that those around Zayn are insistent that he shouldn’t be alone at such an awful time and he is currently in the company of friends.
“Zayn was told in the early hours of this morning and has been in absolute bits. He is in shock, and his parents have been in touch with Liam’s family to offer their support and condolences. People close to Zayn don’t want him to be alone at the moment, so he is surrounded by friends,” a source said.
The source said that, despite previous conflicts leading to a period of silence between Zayn and Liam, there was still mutual respect held between the two, albeit from afar, reports the Mirror.
Emergency services, including police, firefighters and ambulances, were dispatched to the scene after Liam’s fall. Reports suggest that, prior to the fall, police had been called due to a man behaving aggressively at the hotel, potentially under the influence of alcohol or drugs. A body was discovered in the hotel’s inner courtyard.
The hotel manager had alerted the authorities. It is believed that Liam plummeted approximately 13 or 14 metres, sustaining ‘very serious injuries incompatible with life’.
Meanwhile, Alberto Crescenti, a spokesperson for the city ambulance service, stated that the fall was around 40 metres.
In an official statement, the local ambulance service manager informed TN: “At 17.04 through the 911 integrated public safety system, we were alerted of a person who was in an internal courtyard of the management of a south house hotel.”
He continued, “At 17.11 a SAME team arrived and verified the death of this man and later we found out that he was a singer in a musical group. Unfortunately, he had injuries that were incompatible with life, as a result of his fall, so we had to confirm his death, there was no possibility of resuscitation.”