Boy died 'trying to light a fire'

The explosion that claimed the life of a 13-year-old boy on Sunday night was the result of an afternoon of playful mischief with fuel and fire.

The police did not release the boy's identity yesterday but sources named him as Alured Bouslama, a Maltese.

Last night, the police said that autopsy results showed the boy died of extensive burns.

Sources close to the police said the boy was in a tool room with his brother and friend, both 14, when the fuel they were trying to ignite exploded at around 9.30 p.m.

The room is in Annetto Caruana Street in the middle of a large field in Qawra, behind the town church.

Alured's lifeless body was recovered from the room only after the Civil Protection Department doused the fire.

His brother and the friend were taken to hospital where they were treated for minor burns and smoke inhalation, the police said yesterday. A man who owns a cultivated field nearby said the boys were often seen playing in the area along with other children. The fields, one of Qawra's few undeveloped spaces, he said, served as a playground for these children.

"I got used to them playing in the area... they were quite spirited, sometimes they would jump over the rooftops of the church," he said.

He had noted, he said, that a few wooden palettes he had stacked on his land went missing. He later found them placed against the wall of the burnt room. It is thought the children tried to use them to climb over the roof.