Entertainment

3 charged in One Direction singer Liam Payne's death

Three people have been charged in relation to One Direction singer Liam Payne's death  in a fall from his Buenos Aires hotel balcony last month, Argentine authorities said on Thursday.

The musician died at 31 after falling from balcony in Buenos Aires last month

A dark haired man in a suit raises his tattooed hand in a red carpet photo.
Three people have been arrested following the death of One Direction singer Liam Payne. Payne died last month after falling from a balcony at an Argentinian hotel. (Vianney Le Caer/Invision/The Associated Press)

Three people have been charged in relation to One Direction singer Liam Payne's death in a fall from his Buenos Aires hotel balcony last month, Argentine authorities said on Thursday.

The 31-year-old's death shocked the world, and raised questions about how he had fallen.

A 911 call from a hotel employee the day Payne died warned that he had been acting aggressively and could have been under the influence of drugs and alcohol.

An autopsy revealed the former boy-band member had traces of alcohol, cocaine and a prescription antidepressant in his system when he died, a prosecutor's office said in a statement on Thursday.

Those charged in his death include a suspected drug dealer, a hotel employee who may have provided Payne with the cocaine and a person who was close to the singer, the authorities said.

All are accused of playing a role in giving Payne the drugs. The person who was visiting with Payne is also charged with "abandonment of a person followed by death," authorities said.

None of those charged were named.