Linkin Park lead singer Bennington dies in apparent suicide

CGTN photo

Chester Bennington, the lead singer of rock band Linkin Park, has died at his southern California home, the Los Angeles County Coroner's office said on Thursday.

Celebrity website TMZ, citing law enforcement sources, said Bennington, 41, had hanged himself at his residence. Brian Elias, chief of operations at the county coroner's office, said the singer's death is being “handled as a possible suicide."

"Shocked and heartbroken, but it's true," Mike Shinoda, Linkin Park's guitarist and main songwriter, wrote on Twitter.

The band's latest studio album, "One More Light," was released in May, and Linkin Park embarked on a world tour. Bennington's death came a week before the band was due to kick off the US leg of its tour on July 27 in Mansfield, Massachusetts.

Bennington, who married twice and had six children, had a history of struggling with drug and alcohol addictions at various times during his life.

During an interview with British music site Team Rock in 2014, the singer also spoke openly that a family friend abused him from the age of seven. “I was getting beaten up and being forced to do things I didn't want to do. It destroyed my self-confidence," he once said.

The Linkin Park sold 10 million copies of their 2000 debut, "Hybrid Theory," and then another four million with 2003's multiplatinum "Meteora." Both albums explored feelings of frustration and fury.