Tearful Liam Payne fans comforted one another as they came together to remember him at a vigil in London’s Hyde Park.
Hundreds of people gathered at the park’s Peter Pan statue on Sunday. Many were seen crying and hugging one another, while others wrote messages and laid flowers.
Vigils were also held in Glasgow and Paris, following others in Liverpool, New York, Paris, and Madrid this weekend.
Image: Mourners become tearful in Hyde Park on Sunday. Pic: Reuters
Image: Pic: Reuters
Payne, 31, died as a result of multiple injuries after falling from his third-floor hotel balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Wednesday.
Lauren, 26, from Kent, said it was “comforting being with other people… because these people get it, whereas back at home, you’re just kind of on your own, and it’s quite tough, you’re stuck in your own thoughts, and here you can talk about it”.
She added Payne’s death hit harder than the loss of popstar Tom Parker from The Wanted because she was “prepared for it” after his brain tumour diagnosis.
Image: Fans gather at a vigil in George Square in Glasgow. Pic: PA
Image: Flowers and balloons at the Glasgow vigil. Pic: PA
Tess Hayden, 24, is from the US and was on holiday in Dublin when Payne died. She decided to cut her trip short and travel to London in the hope of attending a vigil.
She said: “Well, my older brother and I had been planning a trip to Dublin for a while, and I knew I was gonna try and come to London at some point at the end of the trip, but when I woke up and heard the news, I was like, ‘okay, I’ll just go a day earlier (and) try and figure (it) out’.”
Image: A fan shows her Liam Payne friendship bracelet on Sunday. Pic: Reuters
Image: Fans write messages in memory of Payne. Pic: Reuters
Ms Hayden added that it was “very surreal… sad, devastating, and shocking”.
“It’s a reminder of what a huge part of my childhood and growing up, Liam and One Direction were,” she added.
Image: Crowds gather around the Peter Pan statue in Hyde Park on Sunday
Image: One Direction lyrics in a frame in Hyde Park
Image: Fans lay tributes to him in London’s Hyde Park
Natasha Bradley, 23, who was also at the event, said: “I’ve literally been feeling so sad like ever since the news came on, I just didn’t believe that.”
Image: Teary Liam Payne fans in Paris on Sunday. Pic: PA
Image: A candlelit vigil in Washington Square Park, New York City on Saturday. Pic: Reuters
Image: Liam Payne fans come together in Stockholm on Saturday night. Pic: Reuters
Image: Fans mourn Payne in Liverpool
‘I feel pain in every part of my body’
‘Directioners’ travelled to Buenos Aires to pay their respects outside the Casa Sur hotel immediately after Payne’s death became public.
His father Geoff Payne arrived there on Friday to arrange the repatriation of his son’s body and stopped to observe flowers and messages left by fans.
Image: Fans lay flowers and leave balloons for Payne in Liverpool on Saturday
Sisters Selena, 21, and Augustina, 25, spoke to Sky News correspondent Martha Kelner after travelling three hours from the city of La Plata to the hotel.
Image: Selena 21 and Augustina, 25, sisters from La Plata
“When One Direction came to Argentina in 2014 it was so exciting. We went to the concert and we were in VIP and we were so close to them,” Selena said.
“It feels like so recent, and now that Liam’s gone I feel pain in every part of my body and my heart.
“He was a beautiful person. When his dad came to see the notes around the tree we shielded him from the cameras because the love we have is so big for Liam and his family as well.”
Rocio Hipperdingar also came from La Plata.
Image: Rocio Hipperdingar, 24, from La Plata
“At first I didn’t believe it had happened. I’ve been a fan of One Direction since I was 13 and now I’m 24,” she said.
“I spent many years of my life thinking of them, listening to their music and they were my support in very bad times. I couldn’t believe when I heard he had died, I thought it was fake news. I wanted to come to the hotel because it’s about remembering all the good times I felt with their music.”
She feels as though she has “lost a friend”, she added.
Fan Aelen Urguesta, 24, from Buenos Aires, was also there. “I’m 24 and have loved Liam since I was 14,” she said.
Image: Aelen Urquesta, 24, from Buenos Aires
“I saw him at Niall Horan’s concert in Buenos Aires the week before he died and that was wonderful to see them together.
“The most heartbreaking thing is that he passed away here and not with his family. Liam was a very important part of One Direction so it’s incredibly sad. I can’t say exactly how I feel because I am so emotional.”
His girlfriend Kate Cassidy said she is “at a loss” without her “angel”, while the mother of his child Cheryl has criticised “abhorrent” reporting around his death.
A large-scale Russian attack through the night into Sunday injured at least 11 in Kyiv and killed three people in towns surrounding the capital.
There were attacks elsewhere as well, including drone strikes in Mykolaiv, where a residential building was hit.
Image: An apartment building destroyed after a Russian attack in Mykolaiv. Pic: State Emergency Service of Ukraine
‘Massive’ attack
In Kyiv, the city’s administration warned “the night will be difficult”, as people were urged to remain in shelters.
The city’s mayor Vitaliy Klitschko described it as a “massive” attack.
He said: “Explosions in the city. Air defence forces are working. The capital is under attack by enemy UAVs. Do not neglect your safety! Stay in shelters!”
It came after at least 15 people were injured in attacks the night prior.
Russia claimed it also faced a Ukrainian drone attack on Sunday, and that it intercepted and destroyed around 100 of them near Moscow and across Russia’s central and southern regions.
Image: A municipality worker cleans up after a Russian drone strike on Kyiv. Pic: Reuters
Russia ‘dragging out the war’
Meanwhile, Russia and Ukraine continued a prisoner exchange, marking a rare moment of cooperation in the war.
Amid the most recent attacks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy repeated his calls for sanctions on Russia.
Russia “fills each day with horror and murder” and is “simply dragging out the war”, he said.
Image: A resident looks at an apartment building that was damaged in a Russian drone strike. Pic: Reuters
“All of this demands a response – a strong response from the United States, from Europe, and from everyone in the world who wants this war to end,” Mr Zelenskyy added.
Every day “gives new grounds for sanctions against Russia”, he said, and each day without pressure proves the “war will continue”.
Ukraine, meanwhile, is ready for “any form of diplomacy that delivers real results”.
Nine of a doctor’s 10 children have been killed in an Israeli missile strike on their home in Gaza, which also left her surviving son badly injured and her husband in a critical condition.
Warning: This article contains details of child deaths
Alaa Al Najjar, a paediatrician at Al Tahrir Clinic in the Nasser Medical Complex, was at work during the attack on her home, south of the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, on Friday.
Graphic footage shared by the Hamas-run Palestinian Civil Defence shows the bodies of at least seven small children being pulled from the rubble.
Rescuers can be seen battling fires and searching through a collapsed building, shouting out when they locate a body, before bringing the children out one by one and wrapping their remains in body bags.
In the footage, Dr Al Najjar’s husband, Hamdi Al Najjar, who is also a doctor, is put on to a stretcher and then carried to an ambulance.
The oldest of their children was only 12 years old, according to Dr Muneer Alboursh, the director general of Gaza’s health ministry, which is run by Hamas.
Image: Nine children were killed in the strike. Pic: Palestinian Civil Defence
“This is the reality our medical staff in Gaza endure. Words fall short in describing the pain,” he wrote in a social media post.
“In Gaza, it is not only healthcare workers who are targeted – Israel’s aggression goes further, wiping out entire families.”
Image: Pic: Palestinian Civil Defence
British doctors describe ‘horrific’ and ‘unimaginable’ attack
Two British doctors working at Nasser Hospital described the attack as “horrific” and “unimaginable” for Dr Al Najjar.
Speaking in a video diary on Friday night, Dr Graeme Groom said his last patient of the day was Dr Al Najjar’s 11-year-old son, who was badly injured and “seemed much younger as we lifted him on to the operating table”.
Image: Hamdi Al Najjar, Dr Al Najjar’s husband who is also a doctor, was taken to hospital. Pic: Palestinian Civil Defence
The strike “may or may not have been aimed at his father”, Dr Groom said, adding that the man had been left “very badly injured”.
Dr Victoria Rose said the family “lived opposite a petrol station, so I don’t know whether the bomb set off some massive fire”.
Image: Pic: Palestinian Civil Defence
‘No political or military connections’
Dr Groom added: “It is unimaginable for that poor woman, both of them are doctors here.
“The father was a physician at Nasser Hospital. He had no political and no military connections. He doesn’t seem to be prominent on social media, and yet his poor wife is the only uninjured one, who has the prospect of losing her husband.”
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2:21
Nineteen of Gaza’s hospitals remain operational, all of them are overwhelmed with the number of patients and a lack of supplies
He said it was “a particularly sad day”, while Dr Rose added: “That is life in Gaza. That is the way it goes in Gaza.”
Sky News has approached the Israeli Defence Forces for comment.
Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza began when the militant group stormed across the border into Israel on 7 October 2023, killing some 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and abducting 251 others.
Israel’s military response has flattened large areas of Gaza and killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count.
The head of the UN has said Israel has only authorised for Gaza what amounts to a “teaspoon” of aid after at least 60 people died in overnight airstrikes.
UN secretary general Antonio Guterres said on Friday the supplies approved so far “amounts to a teaspoon of aid when a flood of assistance is required,” adding “the needs are massive and the obstacles are staggering”.
He warned that more people will die unless there is “rapid, reliable, safe and sustained aid access”.
Image: A woman at the site of an Israeli strike in Jabalia, northern Gaza. Pic: Reuters
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1:44
Gaza: ‘Loads of children with huge burns’
Israel says around 300 aid trucks have been allowed through since it lifted an 11-week blockade on Monday, but according to Mr Guterres, only about a third have been transported to warehouses within Gaza due to insecurity.
The IDF said 107 vehicles carrying flour, food, medical equipment and drugs were allowed through on Thursday.
Many of Gaza’s two million residents are at high risk of famine, experts have warned.
Meanwhile, at least 60 people have been killed by Israeli airstrikes across Gaza overnight.
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Ten people died in the southern city of Khan Younis, and deaths were also reported in the central town of Deir al-Balah and the Jabaliya refugee camp in the north, according to the Nasser, Al-Aqsa and Al-Ahli hospitals where the bodies were brought.
Image: A body is carried out of rubble after an Israeli strike in Jabalia, northern Gaza. Pic: Reuters
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3:08
‘Almost everyone depends on aid’ in Gaza
The latest strikes came a day after two Israeli embassy workers were killed in Washington.
The suspect, named as 31-year-old Elias Rodriguez from Chicago, Illinois, told police he “did it for Gaza”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Sir Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron and Mark Carney of fuelling antisemitism following the shootings.
Mr Netanyahu also accused Sir Keir, Mr Macron and Mr Carney of siding with “mass murderers, rapists, baby killers and kidnappers”.
Image: Palestinians search for casualties in Jabalia, northern Gaza. Pic: Reuters
But UK government minister Luke Pollard told Sky News on Friday morning he “doesn’t recognise” Mr Netanyahu’s accusation.
Earlier this week, Mr Netanyahu said he was recalling negotiators from the Qatari capital, Doha, after a week of ceasefire talks failed to bring results. A working team will remain.
The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on 7 October 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 251 others.
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The militants are still holding 58 captives, around a third of whom are believed to be alive, after most of the rest were returned in ceasefire agreements or other deals.
Israel’s offensive, which has destroyed large swaths of Gaza, has killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.