Fireworks victim's funeral today

Robert Farrugia, who died in an explosion at the St Gabriel's fireworks factory at l-Iklin on Wednesday, will be buried today following Mass at 4 p.m.

Sources said yesterday that in an incident at the same factory in 2002 Mr Farrugia had extinguished a blaze that had engulfed a colleague and then took him to hospital.

Mr Farrugia, 58, known as Robbie, died when a mixture of explosives he was handling blew up in his hands at about 9 a.m. Valent and Nazzareno Azzopardi, both of Balzan, who were in another section of the factory complex at the time, escaped unhurt.

Mr Farrugia was working in an open space covered by metal sheeting, known as il-barrakka. Parts of the metal sheeting were blown into adjacent fields.