MUMBAI: English-Irish band One Direction members have reportedly agreed to go on a hiatus for "at least 12 months from March 2016".

The band, consisting of Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson, has been together for five years.

According to a source, the band decided not to tour their latest record during a secret meeting where they also agreed to an extended hiatus to focus on solo work, reports mirror.co.uk.

"They fully deserve to have at least a year to work on their own projects. There is absolutely no bad blood between them and they are all 100 percent behind the decision. The hiatus is 100 percent not a split and they will get back together in the future to release further material," the source told The Sun newspaper.

The source added that the band's last live concert will be on 31 October at Motorpoint Arena in Sheffield.

Their new record is likely to be released around Christmas and the band dropped the video for the single ‘Drag me down’ this month. Shot at the NASA Space Centre in Houston, Texas, the video presents the singers as astronauts.

The band’s contract with Simon Cowell's label Syco, will end next year. There no official comment made by Cowell as of yet.

Recently, Zayn Malik decided to split from the band and focus on his solo career.