The 31-year-old British musician was a vocalist for the U.K. pop band, along with Niall Horan, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson. The band is on hiatus.

Liam Payne, a member of the British pop band One Direction, died Wednesday at age 31 after he fell from the third floor of a hotel in Argentina, local authorities said.

Sistema de Atencion Medica de Emergencia, the emergency health service, said in a statement to Telemundo, NBC News’ Spanish-language sister network, that Payne fell from the balcony in Palermo.

Police “were directed to the hotel by a 911 call reporting an aggressive man,” said the emergency services agency. It did not say whether drugs or alcohol were involved, just that the 911 call reported that could be the case.

  • TimeSquirrel@kbin.melroy.org
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    19 days ago

    As someone with acrophobia, this justifies my fear of balconies and railings over 1 story tall. I don’t understand humans’ architectural obsession with giant voids and heights. I’m the kinda person who’s asshole puckers up looking at a two story mall ceiling.

    • FundMECFSResearch@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      18 days ago

      Humans tend to be pretty good at not falling. This is coming from someone who spent their teenage years and early 20s smoking on the roof. (European style appartment roofs that are closed to access and sloped without railings).

      Though I was also a mountain climber so maybe I’ve been desensitised to heights ;).

    • VindictiveJudge@lemmy.world
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      19 days ago

      Most railings I’ve seen really need to be higher. If the top isn’t higher than your center of gravity, there’s very little preventing you from going over.

    • scarabic@lemmy.world
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      18 days ago

      Movies make it look like you can shrug off a fall from a 1 story building and just keep running. But wow, is that not true. There are instances of people surviving a lot more, but 1-2 stories is enough to kill much of the time.

      • Hupf@feddit.org
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        18 days ago

        People can get seriously hurt falling down a chair, or on their head from just standing upright.

        • scarabic@lemmy.world
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          18 days ago

          It’s a healthy reflex up to a point. Your body doesn’t want to fall. But if it’s causing you daily anxiety that’s going a little too far. Stress is not healthy either.

      • TheFriar@lemm.ee
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        18 days ago

        Actually, most falling deaths/injuries occur from, like, 6’ or lower. I’m sure a lot of that has to do with older people.

        • uid0gid0@lemmy.world
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          17 days ago

          Rule of thumb is any fall from your height or higher in which you hit your head (non withstanding other injuries) is a medical emergency.

        • scarabic@lemmy.world
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          17 days ago

          I’m sure most falls are not off a balcony, etc but yeah probably people tripping, especially old people :(

      • Zorsith@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        18 days ago

        There’s instances of people dying just tripping over something and landing wrong, we are not a sturdy species physically

    • Num10ck@lemmy.world
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      19 days ago

      all humans have an instinct to avoid falling off cliffs. even blind infants.

      voids and heights are the ultimate physical luxury, and great for your mental health.