A third inquiry was called yesterday into the death of Gunner Matthew Psaila during an army training exercise 11 days ago.

The unexpected announcement came after questions were raised about the internal investigation being carried out by the army. Over the weekend the Labour media and It-Torċa reported that the investigation is being handled by an officer who is responsible for the army's overall health and safety and may, therefore, have a conflict of interest.

When asked yesterday, the Office of the Prime Minister did not comment on the alleged conflict of interest.

Late yesterday evening, however, the government issued a press statement saying a third inquiry (besides the internal inquiry and a magisterial inquiry) will be opened, led by retired judge Victor Caruana Colombo.

A former army commander and member of the Public Service Commission, John Spiteri, and the former Civil Aviation Department director general Joe Sultana will form the rest of the inquiry board.

The government did not outline the brief of the new inquiry.

The young soldier, who would have turned 20 yesterday, died yesterday week after being pulled out of Chadwick Lakes unconscious during a training exercise the previous Friday.

The inquiries will try to establish precisely what happened but from reports so far it appears that Gunner Psaila somehow remained submerged for about 10 minutes before his colleagues found him.

He was being kept alive at Mater Dei Hospital with the help of sophisticated medical equipment after no sign of a pulse was registered for almost 20 minutes in an ambulance that took him to hospital after the incident.

He died at the hospital's intensive care unit at 1.05 a.m. The incident has raised many questions on whether Gunner Psaila should have been allowed to go on with the exercise or whether he should have been given special consideration since he was unable to swim.