Fans mourning Liam Payne’s death turned out across Britain and beyond at organised vigils Sunday, with at least 1,000 gathering in central London to pay tribute to the former One Direction star.
It came four days after Payne died aged 31 following a fall from the balcony of his Buenos Aires hotel room, prompting an outpouring of grief and condolences from family, former bandmates, fans and others.
Investigators have said he appeared to have been “going through an episode of substance abuse”.
Those at the London memorial at the Peter Pan statue in Hyde Park were encouraged in social media posts to bring “flowers, letters, balloons, pictures” and did not disappoint.
Gathering in the rain under umbrellas bearing those things and more, the crowd of mainly young people sang One Direction songs after also standing in silence for periods.
“He was such a big part of our childhood — we just came to pay our respect,” student Katie Etchells, 20, wearing a One Direction t-shirt, told AFP.
She was one of many who said that they at first thought word of his death was “fake news”, calling the realisation it was true “very upsetting”.
“I think he’ll be happy to know that so many people does love him,” a tearful Luna Franco, 20, from Italy, told AFP.
– ‘Unify’ – –
Musician Shukhrat Turdikhodjaev, 21, said he had gone from “disbelief at first” to shock on hearing Payne had died.
He added the turnout showed that the singer “was able to connect and unify so many different people”.
Elsewhere, news reports and social media posts showed hundreds also gathered in the Scottish cities Edinburgh and Glasgow, as well as Paris, New York, Stockholm and many other places.
Fans were also set to gather later Sunday in Birmingham in central England — near Wolverhampton where Payne was born and raised.
He would shoot to fame around the world as a teenager in the hugely successful pop group One Direction, which formed in 2010 after its members appeared on “The X Factor”.
Sunday’s meet-ups mirror gatherings seen across Latin American in recent days.
In Buenos Aires, tearful fans have continued to mass in front of the Casa Sur Hotel, where Payne plunged to his death and an altar dedicated to him has been created full of flowers and messages.
On Friday, his father Geoff Payne visited the scene, thanking fans gathered there in a shared moment of grief.
Meanwhile Mexico City, the Ecuadorian capital Quito and various towns and cities in Colombia are among the other places to have seen impromptu ceremonies for Payne.
– ‘Just really sad’ –
Anguished reactions have continued to stream in, including from Girls Aloud star Cheryl Tweedy, Payne’s former partner and the mother of their seven-year-old boy, who called his death an “earth shattering event”.
Payne’s One Direction bandmate Zayn Malik said Saturday on X that he was postponing the current US leg of his tour until January, citing “the heartbreaking loss experienced this week.”
Payne died from “multiple traumas” and “internal and external haemorrhaging” after the fall from the hotel, an autopsy found.
It suggested he had not tried to stop his fall and was in a state of “semi or total unconsciousness” before his death.
The singer, who had spoken publicly about struggles with alcohol and coping with fame from an early age, was alone at the time and appeared to be “going through an episode of substance abuse,” prosecutors have said.
Back in London, fan Chelsea Willy, 20, summed up the feelings of those mourning the loss.
“It is just really sad,” the actress said. “I’ve been a fan of him since I was very little,” she added, noting she cried on learning the news.
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