Liam Payne’s cause of death revealed after tragic plunge: One Direction star had a fractured skull after he fell from third floor hotel balcony in Buenos Aires while ‘off his head on drugs’

Former One Direction singer Liam Payne died instantly from multiple injuries including a fractured skull when he fell 45ft from a Buenos Aires hotel balcony.

The 31-year-old star plunged from the third floor into the courtyard of the Casa Sur Hotel in Argentina’s capital yesterday afternoon, before medics confirmed his death.

Alberto Crescenti, head of the Buenos Aires emergency services, revealed Payne had a ‘cranial fracture and extremely serious injuries that led to his immediate death’.

He also told TN television that Payne was dead when paramedics arrived at 5pm local time (9pm UK time), adding: ‘Our role was to head there quickly, give medical attention, and try to resuscitate him, but his injuries were incompatible with life.’

Payne’s identity was confirmed by emergency services by checking his passport, but police do not yet have conclusive evidence regarding the circumstances of his fall.

The singer fell from a third-floor suite with a balcony overlooking an interior pool and the on-site Michelin-star restaurant where he landed in the courtyard.

Late last night, police in forensic suits were minutely examining the room and its balcony after colleagues below erected a red tent on the spot where Payne died.

The patio where he died is next to the swimming pool and is also the site for outdoor tables at the hotel’s plant-based Sarco restaurant. No diners were there at the time, because Sacro closes after lunch at 4pm before reopening for dinner at 7.30pm.

Payne had arrived in Argentina earlier this month for his ex-bandmate Niall Horan’s concert with his girlfriend Kate Cassidy. She left two days ago, but he stayed on.

Around the same time, his ex-fiancée Maya Henry instructed lawyers to issue Payne with a cease and desist letter after accusing him of repeatedly contacting her.

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 .

It comes as:

A hotel reception worker made a distressing 999 call requesting ‘urgent’ assistance after Payne had been acting erratically and was escorted back to his hotel room.

The hotel worker made two calls, saying in the first: ‘We have a guest who’s off his head on drugs and is destroying everything in his room. We need someone to come.’

He then phoned back after the line went dead, saying: ‘I don’t know if the guest’s life is in danger. The room has a balcony and we are afraid he might do something.’

Payne 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.

Seconds later the employee, who identified himself as Esteban, added: ‘Just send an ambulance, only an ambulance.’ Workers had heard a loud sound in the courtyard before the singer’s body was discovered just after 5pm local time (9pm UK time).

A recording of the second call lasting about two minutes and leaked to local media overnight began with the 999 operator saying: ‘Hello, where is the emergency?’

The hotel employee replied: ‘Hello, good afternoon. I called just now but the line went dead. I’m calling from the CasaSur Palermo Hotel, address 6032, Costa Rica.’

The conversation continued as below:

• 999 responder: ‘What happened there, sir?’
• Hotel employee: ‘Well, we have a guest who is off his head on drugs and alcohol. And well, when he is conscious he is destroying everything in the room. And well, we need you to send someone, please.’
• 999 responder: ‘Under the effects of alcohol and drugs, did you say sir?’
• Hotel employee: ‘Yes, correct.’
• 999 responder: ‘You told me Costa Rica. Sorry but what number, sir?’
• Hotel employee: ‘Costa Rica, 6032’
• 999 responder: ‘That is Buenos Aires capital, between Arevalo and Kramer, right?’
• Hotel manager: ‘Yes.’
• 999 responder: ‘Hotel, you said? What’s the hotel called?’
• Hotel employee: ‘CasaSur Palermo. And we need you to send someone urgently because, well, I don’t know if the guest’s life is in danger. They must be in a room that has a balcony. And well, we’re a little bit worried he’ll do something, that he’ll put his life at risk.’
• 999 responder: ‘How long has he been there? Or is it a residential hotel?’
• Hotel employee: ‘No, no. He’s been here two or three days.’
• 999 responder: ‘Understood. And you wouldn’t know any other information because you can’t get into the room, no?’
• Hotel employee: ‘No.’
• 999 responder: ‘We’ll notify the SAME (Sistema de Atención Médica de Emergencias – or Emergency Medical Attention Service) medical response service, okay?’
• Hotel employee: ‘Yes, what I ask you is that you send someone urgently because, well…’
• 999 responder: ‘Any other information you can give me. Who are you, the manager?’
• Hotel employee: ‘I am the head of reception.’
• 999 responder: ‘You’d be in charge at the moment, right?’
• Hotel employee: ‘Yes.’
• 999 responder: ‘What’s your name, sir?’
• Hotel employee: ‘Esteban.’
• 999 responder: ‘Okay, this has been notified. Thank you for letting us know. You can hang up now.’
• Hotel manager: ‘Are you sending the police as well or not?’
• 999 responder: ‘The police for the area you’re in? Give me a second. Area 14.’
• Hotel manager: ‘No, just send the SAME medical response service.’

Outside the hotel, shocked fans gathered after police cordoned it off with forensic investigators seen entering and exiting in white protective suits and blue gloves. 

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’.

His body was transported to a local morgue where a post-mortem examination will be carried out.

Mr Crescenti said Payne had fallen around 45ft (14 metres) and suffered ‘severe injuries which were incompatible with life’.

He said: ‘The alarm was raised at 5.04pm local time saying a person was lying in an internal patio at Casa Sur. At 5.11pm an ambulance arrived and the man was certified dead.

‘Afterwards we found out he had been a famous singer. Unfortunately the injuries he had suffered as a result of the fall proved to be fatal. There was no possibility of resuscitating him.’

Unverified pictures have since emerged online claiming to be Payne’s hotel room completely trashed with one image showing a smashed television screen.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in London confirmed it is in contact with authorities in Argentina ‘regarding reports of the death of a British man’.

Payne had arrived in Argentina earlier this month to attend his ex-bandmate Niall Horan’s concert.

The star’s final Snapchat post showed him happily posing with his partner Kate Cassidy as they looked into a mirror – a picture which was originally taken last August.

Further posts from the final moments of Payne’s life showed him enjoying lunch in his hotel room, where he revealed the pair had been ‘waking up at 1pm every day’ and deciding on Forest Gump as a Halloween costume.

A further selfie was captioned: ‘Lovely day in Argentina’ before the star shared a photo of his hotel, writing: ‘Happy I got some time away’ followed by a heart emoji.

He shared another photo with Cassidy captioned: ‘Quality time.’

Payne’s death comes days after his ex-fiancée Maya Henry started legal proceedings against him.

The 23-year-old Texan model instructed lawyers to issue a cease and desist letter to the star after accusing him of repeatedly contacting her.

She had also accused Payne of obsessively contacting her friends and family including her mother Azteca Henry.

Payne formed boy band One Direction in 2010, alongside Zayn Malik, Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan and Harry Styles, after they individually auditioned for The X Factor.

After becoming one of the biggest pop groups in the world with five albums and four world tours, One Direction went on indefinite hiatus in 2016.

Earlier this month, Payne attended bandmate Horan’s Argentinian concert alongside his girlfriend Kate Cassidy.

Payne released his debut solo album LP1 in December 2019 which included the songs Polaroid, Familiar and Strip That Down featuring Quavo.

The song was one of two tracks that reached the top 10 in the UK official charts, alongside For You with Rita Ora from the film Fifty Shades Freed – which the duo performed at the Brit Awards in 2018.

Payne and Girls Aloud singer Cheryl share a son Bear, born in 2017, having been in a high-profile relationship between 2016 and 2018.

The singer first auditioned for The X Factor in 2008 at the age of 14 singing Frank Sinatra’s Fly Me To The Moon, with judge Simon Cowell telling him to return to the ITV talent show two years later.

He impressed the judges in 2010 singing Michael Buble’s rendition of Cry Me A River before he was put with four other solo hopefuls at the boot camp stage of the competition – the group which later became One Direction.

In 2012, the boy band won their first Brit Award for best British single for their debut track What Makes You Beautiful, before picking up the Brit global success award a year later.

In 2014 and 2015 they also won best British video for Best Song Ever and You & I respectively.

After Malik left the band, the quartet won best artist video for Drag Me Down in 2016. They picked up the same award a year later for History.

In August last year, Payne postponed his scheduled tour of South America after suffering from a ‘serious kidney infection’.

He said the infection was something ‘I wouldn’t wish on anyone’ and he had been instructed by doctors to ‘rest and recover’.

Later last year he was banned from driving in the UK after admitting a speeding offence.

The singer was reportedly travelling at 43mph in a 30mph zone and was banned from driving for six months, as well as paying a fine, in October 2023.

In August this year, Payne was announced as a judge on a new Netflix show alongside former Destiny’s Child singer Kelly Rowland and The Pussycat Dolls star Nicole Scherzinger.

The stars were to judge attempts to create a band, looking at the contestants’ chemistry as they formed groupings in the musical competition series.

Among those paying tribute to Payne today was TV presenter Dermot O’Leary who recalled him auditioning for The X Factor as a 14-year-old boy.

O’Leary, who hosted The X Factor during both of Payne’s appearances, shared a photograph of the pair on stage, captioning the Instagram post: ‘The worst news’.

‘I remember him as a 14-year-old turning up to audition on The X Factor, and blowing us away singing Sinatra. He just loved to sing,’ he wrote.

‘He was always a joy, had time for everyone, polite, grateful, and was always humble.’

Styles’ mother Anne Twist posted a broken-hearted emoji on Instagram, captioning it: ‘Just a boy.’

Singer Olly Murs, who starred on The X Factor a year before One Direction, said he was ‘lost for words’, describing Payne’s death as ‘devastating’ on Instagram.

‘We always had a good laugh when we saw each other, sometimes the catch ups were only short and sweet but when we did it was mostly about how annoyingly good his hair always looked, or our love for Becks, the old XF (X Factor) days and the tour we shared together,’ Murs wrote beside a picture of the pair.

‘Liam shared the same passions as me, the same dreams so to see his life now end so young hits hard, I’m truly gutted and devastated for his family and of course his son Bear losing a dad.’

The Wanted star Max George said he met Payne while he was competing on The X Factor with One Direction, describing his death as ‘absolutely devastating news’.

‘Over the last few years I had the pleasure of getting to know him personally and spent some treasured time with him,’ he said on Instagram.

‘Liam was absolutely wonderful in terms of support when Tom (Parker) fell ill, performing at the Royal Albert Hall with us for Stand Up To Cancer.

‘He supported me a lot personally after Tom passed. I will never forget that.’

Payne attended the funeral of Parker, who died in March 2022 at the age of 33 after being diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour.

US singer Charlie Puth, a co-writer on Payne’s 2017 song Bedroom Floor, said he was in ‘shock’ after Payne’s death.

‘Liam was always so kind to me,’ he posted on Instagram, alongside a collection of photos of the pair working together.

‘He was one of the first major artists I got to work with. I cannot believe he is gone… I am so upset right now, may he rest in peace.’

Former SAS: Who Dares Wins host Ant Middleton said he ‘formed a brotherhood’ with Payne after they filmed a documentary together in 2019.

The ex-Special Forces soldier described the former One Direction singer as ‘a good friend of mine’ after the pair journeyed through Namibia for the programme Ant Middleton & Liam Payne: Straight Talking.

Middleton said during a live interview on Australia’s The Morning Show that it was ‘the first time hearing’ of Payne’s death at the age of 31 after falling from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires.

‘After we filmed Straight Talking With Ant Middleton, he was my first celebrity guest and we formed a brotherhood,’ Middleton told hosts Kylie Gillies and Larry Emdur.

‘He was like a younger brother to me. He would confide in me, I’d go around and see him.

‘There were some issues there, but nothing that a young celebrity at his calibre wouldn’t suffer from.

‘I’m just shocked at the moment, wow, don’t really know what to say.’

Middleton said Payne ‘had a lovely aura around him’, describing him as a ‘lovely guy’.

‘He had positive energy around him,’ the 44-year-old said.

‘He was a visionary, he always thought and dreamed big, and that’s why he got to where he was, and he was loved.

‘He was one of those band members that was the glue, I believe, was the glue for One Direction, and it’s a shame to see such a positive individual die so young.’

Middleton added that he was away filming but wanted to ‘find out what’s happened to my good friend’.

Rylan Clark said Payne’s death was ‘so tragic’ on X, while fellow former X Factor contestants Jedward sent their love to Cheryl, his son Bear and ‘all the One Direction family’.

Socialite Paris Hilton also paid tribute on X, calling the singer’s death ‘so upsetting’, while BBC Radio 2 presenter Zoe Ball said ‘devastating news, dear Liam Payne’.

DJ and music producer Zedd, who featured alongside Payne on the 2017 song Get Low, called the singer’s death ‘absolutely heartbreaking’.

American singer and rapper Ty Dolla Sign said he will ‘miss’ Payne, captioning videos and pictures on his Instagram story: ‘Just talked to you two days ago my guy.’

Fellow boy band the Backstreet Boys also paid tribute, saying their hearts go out to ‘Directioners around the world’.

A statement on X added: ‘Words can not express the emotions we are collectively feeling right now, and it seems like the rest of the world is in the same boat.’

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has described the death of Payne as ‘very sad news’.

She told Sky News this morning: ‘It’s very sad news, it’s no age for someone to lose their life, and my thoughts are with his friends and family, this must be a total shock for them and very, very upsetting.’

She said of his friends and family that ‘my thoughts are with them at what must be a really difficult time’.

A number of industry bodies joined those paying tribute, including streaming giant Spotify, MTV and the Brit Awards who all said in separate statements that they are ‘deeply saddened’ by Payne’s death.

Payne’s journey to stardom began when he was just 14 years old at his lesser-known first audition for The X Factor.

Payne impressed judges with his own version of Fly Me To The Moon by Frank Sinatra – but was later eliminated from the show.

However, Payne gave his singing career another go auditioning for the competition again in 2010, where he quickly shot to fame as part of One Direction.

He and his former bandmates Horan , Malik , Styles and Tomlinson , were brought together by Simon Cowell and former judge Nicole Scherzinger who saw their potential as a group.

After just a few weeks of getting to know each other and non-stop rehearsing, the group impressed Cowell at their Judge’s Houses audition and sailed through to the live shows.

Cowell later admitted to Rolling Stone that it took him ‘about a millionth of a second’ to spot the group’s worldwide potential.

The fan reaction was instant too, with 1D hysteria soon dwarfing the show. Despite the adoration, the band ultimately finished in third place on the X Factor but shortly afterwards Cowell sealed their fate by signing the fivesome to a reported £2million Syco contract.

Keen to capitalise on the boys’ already devoted fanbase, Cowell moved quickly with recording for the band’s debut album beginning in January 2011.

One Direction became one of the biggest pop groups in the world with five albums, four world tours, one movie and a memorable music video for Red Nose Day in 2013 which featured then prime minister David Cameron happening upon them dancing in front of Number 10 Downing Street.

But six years after they were formed, with more than 20 million albums sold, the band were placed on indefinite hiatus with Malik having already left in 2015 to pursue a solo career.

Marking One Direction’s 10th anniversary in 2020, Payne shared a screenshot of a text message he sent to his father on the day he joined the group, reading: ‘I’m in a boyband.’

‘What a journey… I had no idea what we were in for when I sent this text to my dad years ago at this exact time the band was formed,’ he said.

In 2016, Payne signed a solo record deal with Capital Records UK.

He said at the time he was ‘really happy’ to have signed with them, adding: ‘One Direction will always be my family; I’m now excited to show what I can do as a solo artist.’

Over his solo career, Payne released hits Strip That Down and Get Low.

Away from the studio and stage, Payne entered into a relationship with former Girls Aloud star Cheryl, the pair having first met on The X Factor when she was a judge.

In March 2017, the couple announced the birth of their son Bear.

Proud new father Payne shared a photo of himself cradling a baby with dark hair on Instagram, with the caption: ‘I’m incredibly happy to welcome our new baby boy into the world, it’s a moment that I will never forget for the rest of my life and my favourite memory I have so far.’

The singer would go on to speak proudly of his son in the years to come, saying during one awards ceremony that Bear ‘constantly inspires’ him to be a better person.

In July 2018, Payne and Cheryl announced their split after two-and-a-half years together.

He opened up about their separation in the following months, saying it was tough to break up in the public spotlight and that announcing it was ‘like breaking up twice’.

In August 2020, Payne got engaged to American model Maya Henry, but the pair split during lockdown and announced the engagement had been broken off in June 2021.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Payne helped provide more than 360,000 meals to people struggling as a result of the outbreak.

He donated to the Trussell Trust charity to support more than 100 food bank centres in Birmingham, Stoke-on-Trent, Coventry, Sheffield, Nottingham and Bristol.

Born in August 1993, Payne was frequently ill as a young child due to issues with one of his kidneys.

Over the course of his music career, the popstar collaborated with the likes of J Balvin, French Montana, Dixie D’Amelio and A Boogie Wit da Hoodie.

He leaves behind his parents, Geoff and Karen Payne, his son Bear, seven, and his two older sisters, Ruth and Nicola.

MTV released the following tribute: ‘We’re deeply saddened to learn of Liam Payne’s tragic passing today. During this difficult time, our hearts remain with his family, loved one, and fans.’

The Brit Awards said: ‘We’re incredibly sad to learn of the tragic passing of Liam Payne. Our thoughts and prayers are with his friends and family at this time.’

And Spotify added: ‘We are deeply saddened by the news of Liam Payne’s passing. Our thoughts are with his family, friends, and the many fans who loved and supported him.’

MailOnline has approached Payne’s representatives for comment.