More than 100 fans have gathered in central London to pay tribute to former One Direction member Liam Payne.
The large group stood in silence on Sunday afternoon as they brought pictures of the late 31-year-old singer as well as handwritten notes, balloons, and flowers at the Peter Pan statue in Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park.
Directioners, the name given to supporters of The X Factor-formed band, have organised events on social media throughout the world and in the UK to celebrate Payne, who died on Wednesday.
Tess Hayden, 24, who was on holiday with her brother in Dublin, Ireland when she heard the news, told the PA news agency that she made changes to her schedule so she could be with One Directions fans in London.
The tourist, from the US, 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, ‘okay, I’ll just go a day earlier (and) try and figure (it) out.”
Before the weekend, Payne’s father headed to Buenos Aires to arrange the repatriation of his son’s body.
Speaking in Hyde Park to PA, Lauren Anderson and Natasha Bradley, both 23, reflected on how they had dealt with the grief together.
Ms Bradley said “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”.
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.
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”.
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.
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”.
