Three charged in One Direction singer Liam Payne's death

Three people have been charged in relation to One Direction singer Liam Payne's death in a fall from his Buenos Aires hotel balcony last month, Argentine authorities said on Thursday.

The 31-year-old's death shocked the world, and raised questions about how he had fallen.

A 911 call from a hotel employee the day Payne died warned that he had been acting aggressively and could have been under the influence of drugs and alcohol.

An autopsy revealed the former boy band member had traces of alcohol, cocaine and a prescription antidepressant in his system when he died, a prosecutor's office said in a statement on Thursday.

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Payne's body was handed over to his father, Geoff, over the weekend and flown back to his native England. Over the past few weeks, Geoff had been seen alongside longtime One Direction bodyguard, Paul Higgins, at the CasaSur hotel where his son died.

Those charged in Payne's death include a suspected drug dealer, a hotel employee who may have provided Payne with the cocaine and a person who was close to the singer, the authorities said.

All are accused of playing a role in giving Payne the drugs, with the hotel employee accused of giving Payne cocaine at least twice during his stay and the alleged drug dealer believed to have provided it twice more two days before his death.

• Liam Payne's body set for return to UK; funeral scheduled this week