Former One Direction star Liam Payne is dead after falling from a hotel window, the tragic news shocking his beloved fans.

The 31-year-old reportedly staying in Buenos Aires weeks after attending the concert of his former bandmate,

Niall Horan.

Here's what we know right now.

The pop singer was staying at a hotel in Palermo, which is a trendy neighborhood in Buenos Aires.

According to Telemundo, he fell from his third-floor balcony.

Local police say they went to the hotel after receiving a 911 call reporting an aggressive man who could be under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

These are live pictures tonight.

Right now, from outside the hotel, you can see the crowd surrounding the building and an emergency vehicle just outside the entrance.

The boy band star just posting these photos to social media earlier today, and it was just two weeks ago when he was greeted by screaming fans as he attended his former bandmate Niall Horan's concert there.

Payne was one of five members of One Direction, a pop band amassing millions of fans with hit songs and movies.

The songs like What Makes You Beautiful, you may know.

The group has since been on hiatus since around 2016.

NBC's Sam Brock joins us now live with the late-breaking details.

Sam, what can you tell us?

Sure, of course, One Direction, Tom, is a touchstone for a lot of folks, right?

This very popular band over the course of the last couple of decades, really, as you said, breaking up in 2016 or at least going on hiatus.

In terms of what we know at this hour, let me set the framework.

So the emergency management services in Buenos Aires, in collaboration with police, provided what we know at this hour to Telemundo.

So we're primarily operating out of that.

And I say emergency services and police because of the details that we're now learning.

31-year-old Liam Payne, according to those services, fell off of his balcony and died somewhere within the hotel grounds.

They are also saying that there was a call placed to 911 for a man who was, quote, aggressive and potentially under the influence of drug or alcohol, drugs or alcohol.

That was never clarified, so we don't know definitively one way or the other.

That is the back story as far as Liam Payne and One Direction.

This was a group that was formed back in 2010, Tom, during the X Factor reality British TV show and went on to just incredible lengths and successes.

They were the first group to have an album debut at number one on the Billboard 200, their first four albums, according to Billboard.

And, of course, you know, you have some household names there as well, whether it's Zayn Malik or Harry Styles,

Liam Payne, certainly.

And now we are in this tragic place in the music world where he has died, and the exact details of how he fell off the balcony are unclear.

There are reports ongoing right now from Buenos Aires about some details that we're hearing what could have transpired with police, but, unfortunately, none of that is verified, so we can't report it at this hour.

But we do know that Payne tragically fell off of his balcony and died earlier today.

And then, Sam, before you go, I want to circle back to this.

Have we heard from his team or from his family tonight?

No. We have not heard from his camp.

We have not heard from his family.

I did just check Harry Styles' accounts,

Zayn Malik's accounts.

So far, they have not tweeted or posted or put anything on social media as a tribute or even shedding any light on what happened to their friend and their former bandmate, but certainly those calls are being placed right now.

We're trying to get more information, Tom.

Okay. Sam Brock for us.

Sam, we appreciate you on that breaking story.

For more on Liam Payne's career and legacy,

I want to bring in entertainment journalist and a friend to Top Story, Baker Machado.

Baker, so great to have you here.

You've covered One Direction.

They were one of the biggest bands in the world at the time.

And, again, they're members when they went solo.

They were also huge shoes artists.

Talk to me about what this means to the fans.

This is devastating across the board just because they're such a global brand, as you mentioned, being found by Simon Cowell, by the way, in 2010 on the U.K. show The X Factor.

And all of the songs that they were able to create, four number one hits albums on the Billboard Hot 100, over 50 different albums, a million records that they sold over the course of that period of time.

They were a global phenomenon.

And each one of them, when they broke up in 2016, went on to do their own things and went on to great success from there, from Harry Styles to Zayn Malik to Louis Tomlinson.

The list goes on and on here.

We should note that Liam Payne has talked in the past about substance abuse problems.

He did check himself into rehab back in 2022 for about 100 days.

And then on a podcast in 2023, he did say that he was sober, but he was dealing with sobriety issues at the time.

But this was a big moment for him, that he was turning this big corner in his life.

He also did say that when he was going to go see

Niall Horan's show, he was going there to talk about the past, which I think is really interesting.

He's talked about substance abuse problems that he had when he was part of the band as well.

So who knows if that was one thing that they got together and talked about.

But he was really sort of on the ups.

He was going to be putting out some new music next year.

He was also going to be in this new Netflix show that was going to be debuting next year as well called Building the Band, where he was going to be going out looking for the next big boy band.

And that's so sad news.

Yeah, right.

Because from what people have told me, some of our producers, they were all talented, but he was one of the most talented, right, in this group?

They wrote a lot of the songs for the band, which a lot of people don't really know about.

I mean, the thing is, is yes, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson and a lot of the other members get a lot of the recognition.

But still,

Liam Payne was a really big force within that group.

And so this is really devastating, awful news all over social media here.

So they break up about 10 years ago.

What is that last decade?

You mentioned some of the issues with substance abuse, but what has that last decade been like for him?

He's put out a couple different EPs and LPs, but he hasn't put out a full-length album.

He's also had some different issues with relationships.

He's been, as with Cheryl Cole, as we mentioned, he has a son and a toddler with her.

He also was engaged to another girl a few years ago as well.

Now he's dating an influencer named Kate Cassidy.

So he's had some issues with relationships in the past, but he said just as, or as late as 2023, he had been turning this corner because of sobriety.

All right.

Well, we are still getting the news in, but Baker, we appreciate you.