Zayn Malik thanks fans for support

Zayn Malik has thanked fans for their support.

The former One Direction star took to Twitter for the first time since leaving the boyband last month to show his appreciation to his 14.6 million followers.

“Wanna say thanks to everyone that’s been there for me over the last few weeks, love you all.. you know who you are,” Malik tweeted.

The message was retweeted over 110,000 times within the first 15 minutes of being posted, suggesting that One Direction fans are still fully supportive of the singer’s decision to quit the group.

Zayne paid tribute to his former One Direction band mates during an acceptance speech at the Annual Asian Awards in London on Friday night.

“I’d also like to take this moment to thank four of the best guys that I ever met whilst being in the band and doing all the amazing things that I did,” he said.

“Some of the things that we did will stay with me for the rest of my life.”