An Italian diving expert has warned that Malta has poor occupational health and safety standards and called on the authorities to take urgent action to avoid fatalities.

Gianluca Lopez, 42, who lives in Malta and took part in the Costa Concordia salvage, was speaking following the death of a diver at the Palumbo shipyard on Saturday.

Father-of-three Patrick Vella, from Żejtun, died as he worked at dock number 4 after the mechanism to empty the dock developed a fault. The cause of death is yet be established, but Mr Lopez’s initial reaction was that the tragedy was not a complete surprise to him.

Mr Lopez said operations using oxygen cylinders were no longer performed due to the high risks involved. “In this respect I consider Malta as a third world country,” he said.

Yesterday, the police were at the shipyard conducting their investigation. A Palumbo spokesman on Saturday denied reports that the diver had been sucked in by the water pressure, saying there was no such mechanism. Sources told this newspaper the diver was called in to measure the diameter of a defective valve whose diameter was about that of a bucket.  

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