Liam in trouble with One Direction fans for making fun of Zayn

Liam Payne in some hot water after having jokingly placing his hand over bandmate Zayn Malik's face on a printed board.

Liam Payne and Zayn Malik of One Direction. AFP

Singer Liam Payne was slammed by fans after he made a joke about bandmate Zayn Malik's absence on Twitter. Payne jokingly hid his bandmate's face with his hand on the printed board as he, Louis Tomlinson, Harry Styles and Niall Horan posed for a photograph with some fans, reports femalefirst.co.uk

Uploading the image on his Twitter account, Liam, 21, wrote: “#makinglightofasituation sorry for the laughs guys (sic).”

Although some fans didn’t see the funny side of the post, with one - Ana Evans saying: “@Real_Liam_Payne what the????? Why you covering zayn;s face? Am sorry but I cant c da humour in making joke of a frnd’s absence due 2 stress (sic).”

However, the backlash didn’t stop there as Liam found himself in hot water once again when he made a joke about Justin Bieber. One user arianasmccann wrote: “@Real_Liam_Payne Isn’t it kinda depressing for you to know that Justin Bieber will always be more successful than you?”

To which Liam hit back with a comment about Justin’s criminal record, saying: “How many times have I been arrested?” The British singer didn’t apologise for his actions but did try and brush off the situation by later tweeting, “Never mind” and “banter.”

Meanwhile, Zayn, 22, who is meant to be on tour with his band in Asia, was signed off with stress and urged to fly back to the UK to recover following allegations he cheated on his fiancée Perrie Edwards with a mystery blonde in Thailand last week.

It is believed the star will rejoin the group at the weekend for the start of the South Africa leg of their On The Road Again tour.