Death of Liam Payne: beware of this video supposed to show the singer falling from a building

Aged just 31, British singer Liam Payne was found dead (new window) Wednesday in Argentina, after falling from the third floor of his hotel in Buenos Aires. The death of the former member of the One Direction group is the subject of countless publications on social networks, fans of the artist and many celebrities sharing their emotion in turn.

In the midst of these tributes (new window)we also find a video sequence (new window)viewed more than 3 million times. In these images, we observe a man falling from a building before hitting the ground violently. He then lies on a sidewalk, under the gaze of agitated passers-by. A diverted sequence, which has nothing to do with the events that occurred this week.

Images filmed in Mexico

Contrary to what this viral message suggests, the images which are relayed have no link with the death of Liam Payne in Argentina. Articles published in mid-September 2023 show that this sequence dates back more than a year. It was also filmed in another country: Mexico.

The media Markwhich relayed (new window) at the time these images evoked “a shocking scene recorded in Mexico”. The person filmed “fell from the third floor while trying to escape a fire in her house”we learned. When we look closely at the video, we can indeed observe details revealing flames inside the building.

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Fortunately, the man who fled the fire and fell from the building did not succumb to his injuries. Aged 25, he was treated on site by emergency services before being taken to hospital. In the press, the first conclusions of the doctors were reassuring, the person concerned having quickly been presented as “out of danger”.

Note that the misleading publication on the X network was quickly the subject of a “community note”, a feature (new window) allowing Internet users to add contextual elements to messages and which are used, among other things, to report fake news. If the author finally made a mea culpa by explaining that the video came from Mexico, he did not bother to delete the original post. The latter thus continues to circulate online.

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