What the three people charged in connection with Liam Payne’s death have actually been accused of as police give update

Almost a month on from the death of British musician Liam Payne, Argentine police have arrested and charged three individuals in relation to his death.

The One Direction singer died on 16 October after falling from the third-floor balcony of the hotel he was staying at Buenos Aires.

Payne - who was just 31 when he died - was in the city to attend the concert of one of his former bandmates, Niall Horan, with his girlfriend Kate Cassidy.

On the day of his death, several other guests at the hotel called the police to report an 'aggressive man' at the property, from which Payne's girlfriend had returned to Florida in the days prior.

Witnesses also claimed that the individual 'may have been under the effects of drugs and alcohol'.

In the following days, a preliminary post-mortem revealed that 'internal and external haemorrhaging' from injuries sustained from the fall had sadly killed the musician.

A toxicology report subsequently found Payne had alcohol, cocaine and a prescription antidepressant in his system within three days before his death.

Three arrests have now been made (Matias Baglietto/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Yesterday, however, (Thursday 7 November) in a shock development, investigating authorities announced that they'd arrested three individuals over the chart-topper's death.

In a statement, the prosecutor's office said that 'from the beginning of the investigation and within a few days, exhaustive and meticulous actions and measures were taken to clarify the circumstances surrounding the artist's death'.

The firm added that prosecutors have been attempting to 'reconstruct the days in which Payne was staying at the 'Casa Sur' hotel on Costa Rica Street'.

The statement confirmed that 'illicit conduct was discovered' during the official investigation, and that following nine raids carried out at homes in the 'Federal Capital and the province of Buenos Aires', three arrests had been made.

The singer died in Buenos Aires last month (Marc Piasecki/GC Images)

None of these individuals have yet been named.

What are the charges around Liam Payne's death?

A hotel employee stands accused of having supplied the father-of-one - who shares an eight-year-old son, Bear, with ex-girlfriend Cheryl Cole - with cocaine twice during his stay.

Another individual - said to have been accompanying Payne 'on a daily basis' during his time in the city - has been charged with abandonment of a person followed by death.

A third has also been accused of supplying Payne - whose substance abuse was something he previously acknowledged to the public - with drugs twice in the two days prior to his death.

'Abandonment of a person followed by death' explained

The charge essentially accuses someone of knowingly abandoning a person and in some way causes their death.

If found guilty, the charge carries a sentence of between five to 15 years behind bars.