Liam Payne fans sing and grieve at global vigils for former One Direction star

Fans in the UK and around the world have held vigils this weekend in memory of Liam Payne, the One Direction star who died on Wednesday.

Police estimated that between 800 and 1,000 people gathered in London’s Hyde Park on Sunday afternoon to remember the 31-year-old who died after falling from the third floor of a hotel balcony in Argentina.

The crowd sang One Direction songs, such as the chart-topping hit What Makes You Beautiful, with many fans in tears.

A memorial has already been held in Liverpool and Payne’s home city of Wolverhampton.

Groups of fans have also come together in Paris, Sydney, Manila and elsewhere.

It is not yet known when his body will be repatriated to the UK.

Fans showed up in London’s Hyde Park, braving the drizzly weather on Sunday afternoon, and brought with them letters, pictures and flowers.

Many were placing them at the Peter Pan statue where the memorial was being held.

Organiser Alicia Sinclair, 22, from Hertfordshire, said One Direction was “a light in a lot of people’s lives, especially mine”.

“There are a lot of people upset and it’s a good time for us to come together and be with people who understand,” she told BBC 5 Live Breakfast One.

“My favourite memories with my sister are almost entirely revolving around One Direction,” she added.

“So for me it feels like, I guess like the end of us growing up together. That’s what makes it so hard.”

In London, fans Emily and Olivia first fell in love with Payne and One Direction when they were at school.

“Growing up, it’s hard to put it in words, but being a Directioner became such an important community for me,” said Emily, 25.

“Being young at the time, it was my first feeling of being in love, my first feeling of crushing on a boy, of being excited about boys,” added Olivia, who is 23. “I kissed the posters every night. We all did.”

“It felt like you were part of the best club in the world and it’s a huge part of why we bonded together.”

She added that part of the reason why Payne’s death has hit so hard, is because she “always hoped for a One Direction reunion one day”.

“We took it for granted,” she said.

Arriving with flowers in their hands and some people with tears in their eyes, hundreds of fans of One Direction and Payne arrived in Chamberlain Square in the centre of Birmingham on Sunday afternoon.

Jamie Parker, 27, was one of many leaving flowers and a handwritten note in tribute.

Parker said his mother died from cancer in 2013 and that he and his sister “relied on the One Direction albums to help us process our grief and navigate our feelings”.

He added: “When I woke up to the news that he’d died, I was just in utter disbelief.”

“I will treasure those albums forever,” he wrote in his note in memory of Payne.

In Glasgow, people gathered to pay tribute at a vigil despite the organisers’ plan to postpone due to weather concerns.

People of all ages laid flowers, lit candles and sang One Direction and Payne’s songs at the memorial in George Square.

A one minute silence was held, and some fans cried as they hugged their friends and remembered Payne.

In Paris, a crowd gathered and flowers and candles were laid at the Tuilerie Gardens beneath a framed photo of the singer on Sunday afternoon.

One fan at the vigil, Alexandra Veloso Silva, 31, told the Reuters news agency it felt like she had “lost someone from my family”.

Another fan Roman, 23, said Payne’s death feels like “another subject that brings us relief has been taken from us”.

In Liverpool on Saturday, a group of Directioners gathered at the Keel Warf Bridge at Royal Albert Dock.

Some had cardboard signs with the band’s lyrics on them, including one saying “I’m missing half of me when we’re apart”, from the band’s single If I Could Fly.

Another memorial card said Forever Young, a nod to the Alphaville track of the same name that One Direction covered.

Photographs of Payne, flowers, teddy bears and balloons were left at the bridge, and the group sang One Direction songs.

Earlier this weekend, people came together in Wolverhampton, where the singer was born in 1993.

Around 100 people looked down with their heads, bowed as flowers were laid outside St Peter’s Church.

In Buenos Aires, people gathered earlier this week outside the hotel where Payne was found dead.

Payne rose to global fame as part of the boyband One Direction – created on The X Factor TV show in 2010 – and sang together with bandmates Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik and Niall Horan.

Malik left the group in 2015 to embark on a solo singing career, and the band later split in 2016.

On Saturday, Malik announced he had postponed the US leg of his upcoming tour after the “heartbreaking loss” of his former bandmate.

Payne’s family have also been paying tribute. His sister Ruth Gibbins described Payne as her “best friend” in an emotional Instagram post, adding that she didn’t feel “this world was good enough or kind enough” to him.

Meanwhile in Argentina, Payne’s father, Geoff Payne, on Friday viewed tributes for his son outside the Casa Sur hotel in Buenos Aires.

He also visited the morgue in the city to officially identify his son. A federal prosecutor previously told the BBC that his body had been “released”, meaning no further tests were being carried out and identification could take place.

Additional reporting by Linda Sinclair in Glasgow and Hollie Cole in London