Zayn Malik has removed 'One Direction' from his Twitter handle.

The 22-year-old singer - who announced he was leaving the boyband in March - has now had his name changed on the social media site to read @ZaynMalik instead of @ZaynMalik1D.

Shortly after making the change, he posted: ''Is speech an extension to our thoughts or an image that we like to create x (sic)''

So far One Direction fans haven't taken the news well and the hashtag #YouWillAlwaysBeZaynMalik1D has started trending worldwide.

One fan wrote: ''Okay I'm even more sad than before #YouWillAlwaysBeZaynMalik1D (sic)''

Another added: ''March 25th: Zayn Malik physically left One Direction

''April 30th: Zayn Malik mentally left One Direction (sic)''

Following his departure from the group - which is now made up of Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Liam Payne and Louis Tomlinson - Zayn stayed quiet on all his social media accounts before returning to Twitter on April 20.

He wrote: ''Wanna say thanks to everyone that's been there for me over the last few weeks, love you all.. you know who you are x. The x is a kiss by the way ha it's not a mystery .. sorry to any confused .... (sic)''