Boy, 11, critical after village feast fire

Glen Caruana, 11, is in a critical condition after he was badly burnt when shredded paper caught fire and set his clothes alight in Siggiewi at lunchtime yesterday.

A constable, the boy's mother and his three-year-old sister were also injured in the incident that took place at about 12.45 p.m. in Santa Margerita Street.

The police said the incident happened during the morning band march in the locality which celebrated the feast of its patron St Nicholas.

The boy and his sister were playing with the shredded paper in the street when for some reason the paper caught fire, the police added. The boy's clothes caught fire and he sustained severe injuries as a result.

A police constable accompanying the band march and the boy's mother, 40, intervened to extinguish the flames that engulfed the boy's clothes. The constable also sought to extinguish the burning paper that was by now being blown inside a nearby residence by the wind.

The police said the boy was found to be in danger when he was admitted to hospital.

Both the policeman and the boy's mother suffered serious burns and the boy's sister suffered slight injuries and was discharged from hospital after treatment.

Magistrate Giovanni Grixti appointed a team of court experts to help in the inquiry.

The police are investigating.

This was the third incident involving children in five days.

A 30-month-old girl died on Thursday after she fell a height of three storeys down the shaft of a house in Marsascala. And three-year-old Mica Zammit was critically injured when he fell off a merry-go-round at a San Gwann playing field on Tuesday.