A hotel reception worker in Buenos Aires made a distressing 999 call requesting ‘urgent’ assistance before singer Liam Payne fell 45ft to his death from a balcony.

Chilling details of the panicked call emerged today after the former One Direction star fell from the third floor into the courtyard of the Casa Sur Hotel in Argentina.

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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, and 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. 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.

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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). 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: Heartbroken fans descended on the hotel to lay candles and flowers for Payne ; Celebrity tributes poured in from the likes of Dermot O’Leary and Paris Hilton ; Payne shared a photo with his girlfriend on Snapchat minutes before his death ; Fans looked back at Payne’s ‘extraordinary’ X Factor audition in 2008 aged 14 ; Pictures revealed rooms inside the hotel where Payne plunged to his death ; and Harry Styles’s mother Anne Twist shared her grief with a tribute on Instagram.

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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.’ 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.’

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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.’

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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’.

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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.

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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.

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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’.

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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.’