Gozo Channel management is looking into passenger claims that a hearse carrying a coffin was allowed to board the ferry yesterday afternoon in breach of company regulations.

Gozo Channel chairman Joe Cordina said the company was reviewing the CCTV footage of the trip to determine whether the hearse was actually carrying a coffin.

He added that the company employee who allowed the hearse onto the ferry insisted there was no coffin.

However, Mr Cordina said, it could not be excluded that the coffin was in the lower compartment of the two-tier hearse.

The employee who allowed the hearse onto the ferry insisted there was no coffin. It could not be excluded that passengers assumed there was a coffin inside

Neither could the possibility be excluded that passengers saw the empty hearse and assumed there was a coffin inside.

The issue emerged yesterday afternoon when news portal newsbook.com.mt reported that passengers had complained that a coffin was allowed onto the ferry during the trip that left Gozo at 12.45pm.

When contacted Mr Cordina said the company was looking into the matter.

The chairman insisted that it was company policy not to allow coffins to be transported on passenger ferries. This was not illegal but went against the company policy, he added.

In a letter published in Times of Malta in February 2012, a Gozitan man complained that whenever a resident of Gozo died in Malta, or a Maltese resident died in Gozo, the family had to face a number of difficulties to have the corpse transported to the place of residence for subsequent burial.

One of the problems, he said, was that the coffin had to be lined in tin. Another problem was that Gozo Channel did not transport corpses and a private boat had to be hired instead.