A magisterial inquiry is underway to establish the facts which this morning led police officers to fire on a migrant who was at a cave in Ghar Hasan.

The immigrant, Suleiman Samake, 26, from Mali, is currently at Mater Dei in a critical but stable condition.

He was injured in his thigh and near his navel. A bullet went through him coming out from his back.

Addressing a news conference this evening, Police Commissioner John Rizzo said he was informed that around 7.15 a.m., three police officers went down to where there are a series of caves which are sealed and closed off to the public because they are condemned near Ghar Hasan in Birzebbuga.

They had received a report that a man was sleeping in these caves.

Once on site, the police saw Mr Samake sleeping inside and they started calling him to come out. Mr Samake last registered at the Hal Far tent village in 2010, to come out but he did not reply.

Photo: Mark Zammit Cordina

The Commissioner said the police were concerned about the migrant because the place was dangerous and inaccessible to the public.

After some time, he came out and started walking with the police towards their car. He was speaking in English but not making any sense.

But at one point, he took out a nine-inch knife from the inner pocket of his jacket and started waving it at the officers.

A policeman got out pepper spray and sprayed Mr Samake. However, the spray did not seem to have any effect on him and he continued moving towards the police waving the knife.

The police started retreating but Mr Samake continued walking towards them.

Photo: Mark Zammit Cordina

Mr Rizzo said he was told that as they were close to the cliffs, a policeman fired two warning shots.

Mr Samake ignored the shots and continued to move forward so the police fired another two shots. He again ignore the shots and the policeman fired another two.

At this point, Mr Samake, started to retreat and returned to the cave.

Once back inside, one of the officers called for back-up and an ambulance.

The officers tried to speak to Mr Samake and he walked out of the cave, where he had returned to hide the knife. He was given first aid by one of the officers until the ambulance arrived.

Mr Samake was operated upon this morning.

Replying to questions, Commissioner Rizzo said it was still very premature to come to any conclusion about what happened. It seemed Mr Samake was injured with the last set of shots but he may have been injured with the second set.

One of the officers filmed the incident and the footage was currently being examined by court experts, who were also examining the distance between the cartridges and the blood stains to see how far the officers were from Mr Samake when they fired.

Mr Rizzo said that none of the officers had a taser gun.

When asked whether Mr Samake had a history psychiatric problems, Commissioner Rizzo said this was something that would be established by the magisterial inquiry.