K-pop band SHINee's lead singer Kim Jonghyun reportedly commits suicide

The lead singer of South Korean boy band SHINee, Kim Jong-hyun, diedMonday.

He was found unconscious at his home in Seoul, South Korea before being taken to hospital where he was declared dead.

As reported by local Korean media, Jong-hyun was taken to the hospital in an unconscious state as had committed suicide.

Gangnam police in a statementsaid that the singer's sister had called cops to inform that Jong-hyun was threatening to take his life.

A local Korean publication had earlier published: "On December 18, 2017 at 4:42PMthat Jonghyun's older sister reported to Police that her brother was about to commit suicide. We went to his residence in Chungdam and discovered that he had attempted to commit suicide with brown coal briquettes lit inside a frying pan. Emergency responders were with us at the time so we rushed him to the Konkuk University Hospital in a state of cardiac arrest."

The publication further reported that Jong-hyun had texted a suicide note to his sister, but it has not been made public.

Police are yet to find the cause of his death, but reports suggest that he died of carbon monoxide poisoning, which might have caused by "brown coal briquettes lit inside a frying pan."

On the news of his death, celebrities and fans have taken to social media to mourn his loss: