Liam Payne bravely raced to help when a neighbour, locals reveal

Neighbours of Liam Payne have told of their shock at his death – and paid tribute to a ‘top bloke’ who had once bravely rushed to help when a neighbour caught an intruder.

Residents living near the star’s £3.5million home in Buckinghamshire say that they are struggling to come to terms with the news of his fall from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Wednesday night.

They said Liam was a popular part of the community and six months ago had dashed from his mansion to help a neighbour after hearing shouts and screams from a nearby property.

Thomas Evans said Payne rushed to help him and his family after they caught a man lurking on their driveway in Chalfont St Giles, Buckinghamshire.

He said that police turned up minutes later to his home and could not believe the One Direction star was standing there with them wearing a top hat, overcoat and check-patterned suit trousers.

Paying tribute to the down-to-earth star, Thomas told MailOnline: ‘Liam was a very genuine and humble person.

‘He lived a quiet life here. He was a private guy – but he was a warm person who would always greet you with a smile and would stop to talk for a while.

‘About six months ago my mum was out so I was at home with my brother and sister and we saw a shadow of someone walk past a downstairs window.

‘We ran out and caught someone prowling around the house. This would’ve been about 2am and it was pitch black outside.

‘Naturally, we shouted and screamed to scare this intruder off. There was a lot of commotion, and it was a tense situation.

‘About 20 minutes later, this guy came round the corner as I was walking through the front gate and he said ‘I heard a load of shouting and screaming, I just wanted to check that everyone is ok.’

‘It was Liam. He’d been awake luckily. I don’t know if he’d been out somewhere and had just come back but he was wearing some bizarre clothes for that time in the morning.

‘He was wearing a top hat and had an overcoat on and these check-pattern suit trousers.

‘The intruder had run off by then, but we were all quite shaken and he could see that so just spoke to us really calmly and made small talk to help cool us down.

‘The police arrived a short while later and the officers had to double take when they saw Liam standing on the driveway.

‘They went up to him to get a statement first and kind of almost forgot about us momentarily.

‘Liam had a friend with him who had a drone which he put it up to see if we could catch the intruder.

‘All in all, I’d say that Liam was with us for about 40-minutes and only left when he knew we were all safe and well.

‘I think that’s make of the man. He didn’t have to come out of his home in the dead of night to check on a load of kids shouting and screaming but he did. None of the neighbours came out to check on us.’

College student Thomas said Liam moved into the sprawling property, close to the Chilterns, just over a year ago.

He added: ‘I heard that he moved here to be closer to his former wife Cheryl as they have a young son together and she only lives up the road.

‘I spoke to Liam a few times after that incident, it was usually to drop off his post that had come to us by mistake. Sometimes he’d drop our post off.

‘He’d always be really polite and pleased to see you. We’d have a few words by the gate.

On one occasion, I went to give him his mail, but Maya Henry answered. She seemed nice too.

‘The last time I saw him was about a fortnight ago when I saw him walking through his front gate as I drove past. I gave him a little wave.

‘My sister called me just before 1am this morning and said, ‘Liam Payne has died’ and I thought she’d got it wrong. I couldn’t believe it; I was hoping that it was a false internet rumour.

‘It still hasn’t sunk in yet, he was a top, top bloke and he looked out for us.’

Other neighbours revealed their shock and sorrow.

One woman, who asked not to be named, said: ‘It’s tragic really, he has a son who will now grow up without him.

‘My heart goes out to them. I feel guilty really that he was so close-by but struggling mentally.

‘Nobody really knew anything about it as he largely kept himself to himself.’