Four persons were critically injured this morning in a head-on crash involving a car and a route bus at Triq Mikiel Anton Vassalli, Swieqi, just past the junction at the bend to Paceville on the way to Pembroke.
The incident happened at about 5.30am when the car, a Toyota Yaris, strayed into the wrong lane. Such was the impact of the crash that it was thrown back across the centre strip to the other lane.
The Yaris was being driven by a 24-year-old woman from Qormi while the bus was being driven by a 68-year-old man from Msida.
A number of the car's passengers were trapped and had to be helped by rescuers. Both drivers and four foreign passengers in the Toyota were taken to Mater Dei Hospital for treatment.
Later the police said the medical condition of a Maltese woman, 24, and a Slovenian woman, 19, had improved. A Spanish man and a Polish woman, 26, were still in critical condition.
Also injured was a Romanian man and the 68-year-old bus driver.