Fifth Harmony defends security team amid fan abuse allegations

Fifth Harmony has come to the defense of their security team after fans accused one of their bodyguards of "attacking" and "inappropriately touching" eager fans in Brazil.

The Work From Home singers are currently in South America for their 7/27 Tour, and on Monday (04Jul16), photos and videos surfaced of one of the girl group's bodyguards preventing two female fans from going near the hotel rooms of bandmates Dinah Jane Hansen and Lauren Jauregui.

The Brazilian fans were turned away by the male security official, but the girls have since claimed he threatened them and aggressively pushed other fans who had come out to see the pop stars in Brasilia and Sao Paulo.

On Monday, Fifth Harmony posted a statement on Twitter in response to the allegations, branding the claims flat out lies.

It reads: "We have been really busy working and making sure that you guys have as amazing of an experience with us as possible, but we feel like sometimes you guys forget that there are only 5 of us versus the hundreds of you.

"Our security team is set up and in place to protect us and our privacy when people go beyond normal boundaries. We've seen all over Twitter outrage over one of our security guards attacking and trying to inappropriately trying to touch one of our fans and we wanted to put out a statement calling out this lie. We were there."

They described the incident and wrote, "The girl tried to come to Lauren and Dinah's doors and the security we hired were with us speaking to us and making sure we were safe. We saw this girl lie to them about where she was staying and where her actual room was, tell them to 'shut the f**k up and stop talking' and then proceed to try and lunge towards Lauren's room so she could get a note to her. The security guards who ushered her away and made sure she didn't follow through were doing their jobs of protecting us."

The singers explained that their heightened security is due to recent tragedies involving their friend Christina Grimmie, who was shot and killed by a crazed fan after her concert in Orlando, Florida last month (Jun16).

"Especially in light of recent events like the shooting, we can't ever be too safe with our personal space and protection," they continued. "The security guard did nothing but try to make sure the girl went back down the stairs to where she was actually staying. She combated and fought to break free of their directing her and in the process was shouting that they were touching her and trying to take her clothes off."

They concluded, "Four of us were out there and experienced this scene with our own eyes, along with the parents and other staff members. Not one security guard inappropriately touched or harmed anyone. They would never intentionally harm any of our fans. Resisting doing what you're being asked politely to do and getting hurt in the process isn't anyone's fault but your own.

"We will continue to support our security team in making sure that they protect the boundaries so many people seem to think they're entitled to disrespect. They're only trying to keep us safe. We're sorry for any inconvenience but we do not appreciate people lying about our team and costing people their jobs just so they can get extra attention from us. We'd appreciate if you recognized that when you disrespect our team and their hard work, you're disrespecting us."