Liam Payne’s body being repatriated to London

The body of former One Direction member Liam Payne, who died in October in Buenos Aires at the age of 31, is being transferred to London on Wednesday, a police source told AFP.

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Geoff Payne, the singer’s father, accompanies the remains on board a plane which took off at 1:58 p.m. local time (4:59 p.m. GMT) from Buenos Aires international airport.

Local media reported that the body of Liam Payne was transferred Wednesday morning from the British Cemetery in Buenos Aires where it was being kept while the cause of death is investigated.

A funeral home employee told AFP on Tuesday that the body had been embalmed and would be repatriated within 24 to 48 hours.

On Tuesday, Geoff Payne visited the memorial that fans erected outside the hotel where his son died, a pile of letters, photos and flowers on the sidewalk.

Liam Payne was found dead on October 16 after falling from his hotel room balcony. Preliminary results of the autopsy established that he was going through “a sort of crisis due to substance abuse”, according to the Argentine prosecutor’s office.

His death caused a wave of emotion among his many fans around the world.

The pop star had spoken publicly about her drug addiction and difficulty coping with fame from a young age.

Liam Payne was catapulted to stardom in 2010 thanks to One Direction, produced by the TV show The X Factor. The group became one of the most lucrative groups in the world, before going on hiatus in 2016, never formalizing a separation.