Liam Payne: Fans gather for vigils across world to remember One Direction star

Vigils have been held across the country for Liam Payne, ITV News Reporter Charlotte Cross reports from Hyde Park in London

Vigils for One Direction singer Liam Payne have continued over the weekend after his death in a fall from a hotel room balcony in Argentina.

Crowds gathered at London's Hyde Park on Sunday afternoon to pay tribute to the 31-year-old star. Photographs of Payne, flowers, and balloons were left at the Peter Pan statue.

Tess Hayden, 24, from the US, was on holiday with her brother in Dublin, Ireland but when she heard the news she changed her schedule so she could be with One Direction fans in London.

She said: “Well, my older brother and I had been planning a trip to Dublin for a while, and I knew I was gonna try and come to London at some point at the end of the trip, but when I woke up and heard the news, I was like, ‘OK, I’ll just go a day earlier (and) try and figure (it) out.”

She called the news “very sad and devastating, and shocking”.

One Direction fans, Lauren Anderson and Natasha Bradley, both 23, also attended the vigil in London.

Ms Bradley said it was “hard trying to get over it”.

“I’ve literally been feeling so sad like ever since the news came on, I just didn’t believe that.”

She added: “Lauren’s been the one that I’ve been speaking to the most about it”, and she wanted to be around people who were “feeling the same because your parents, they don’t really understand how much they really meant to you growing up”.

Fans paid tribute to the late One Direction star at a vigil in Central London. Credit: PA

Similar gatherings have been taking place across the UK including Glasgow, Sheffield and Birmingham.

Ellen Cree, 29 from Dunfermline, Fife attended the memorial in George Square in Glasgow and said it was a “very poignant event”.

She said: “It was heart-warming to see so many fans come together to celebrate and commemorate Liam’s life and music.

“From my point of view, it was of course very sad, with a lot of tears, but there were hints of happiness with people chatting about fond memories and singing along to music.

“My sister and I left a bunch of white roses and a card, there were lots of other cards, flowers, balloons, drawings and photos etc left on the benches around the Walter Scott Monument.”

Fans attend a vigil in Glasgow to remember the 31-year-old singer Credit: PA/ Ellen Cree

Following Payne's death, One Direction songs are set to re-enter the Top 40 charts with Night Changes, former number two Story of My Life and What Makes You Beautiful being played by fans in great numbers, according to the Official Charts company.

The UK charts could also see Payne’s solo tracks, with Teardrops, For You with singer Rita Ora and Strip That Down with rapper Quavo all set to be in the top 100.

Vigils have also been held globally in Sweden, Belgium, Colombia, Philippines, Russia and outside the Buenos Aires hotel where he died.

Directioners, the name given to followers of The X Factor-formed boy band, met at the Keel Wharf Bridge at Royal Albert Dock in Liverpool on Saturday.

One memorial card said Forever Young, a nod to the Alphaville track of the same name that One Direction covered, but did not formally release as a single.

Fans lit candles and had cardboard signs with the band’s lyrics on them, including one saying “I’m missing half of me when we’re apart”, from the single If I Could Fly by One Direction.

Before the weekend, Payne’s father headed to Buenos Aires to arrange the repatriation of his son’s body.

Geoff Payne visited the Casa Sur Hotel on Friday in the Argentine capital, where the Wolverhampton star fell from a third-floor balcony, and read letters and cards from fans outside.

Flowers and candles left by fans gathering outside the Buenos Aires hotel where Liam Payne was found dead. Credit: AP

On Saturday, his sister Ruth Gibbins paid a heartfelt tribute to her brother on Instagram saying “this world was good enough or kind enough”, as well as sharing pictures of him.

She also wrote “I’m sorry I couldn’t save you” and added: “One last time I need you to know, I’m here if you need anything, I’d drive to the end of the universe to bring you back.”

That same day, Britain’s Got Talent auditions restarted in Blackpool following them being rescheduled after Payne’s death and former One Direction member Zayn Malik announced he would postpone the US leg of his tour.

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Malik, who left The X Factor-formed boyband in 2015 before they went on hiatus in 2016, wrote on X that he was making the decision “given the heartbreaking loss experienced this week”.

“The dates are being rescheduled for January and I’ll post them as soon as it’s all set in the next few days,” he also wrote. “Your tickets will remain valid for the new dates. Love you all and thank you for your understanding.”

He is set to perform in the UK in Edinburgh, London, Wolverhampton, Leeds, Newcastle and Manchester throughout the final two months of this year, and a spokesman for the singer confirmed these are unchanged.

Around 100 people gathered on Sunday afternoon to pay tribute to Liam Payne. Credit: AP

Payne died of multiple traumas and “internal and external haemorrhage”, a post-mortem examination report said.

Argentina’s National Criminal and Correctional Prosecutor’s Office No 16 said it was investigating the incident as an “inconclusive death”.

It said five witnesses were questioned in order to reconstruct what happened at the hotel.

A joint statement from One Direction said they were “completely devastated” and will miss the singer “terribly”, adding the “memories we shared with him will be treasured forever”.

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