The parents of a 15-year-old boy who survived a storey-high drop into a Mellieħa construction site are worried because, two weeks after the accident, the area remains a danger to children.

"We want to see eight courses of bricks built around the site, and any other dangerous ones, according to law. Our son was very lucky to have got away with bruises. But we are worried someone else's child might suffer a worse fate," Roseann and Renald Caruana stressed.

Their son, Ryan, slipped into the site, in Denċi Street, on August 26 when he stepped over the wall - just three courses high - to collect his missing flip flop.

The shoe had been blown into the site when he placed the pair on his friend's parapet wall.

Since the accident his parents have contacted the Malta Environment and Planning Authority and the Mellieħa council to ensure the site is walled up safely - but nothing has been done so far.

Mellieħa mayor Robert Cutajar said the council was working to track down the owner with Mepa's help. The council had also inspected all sites in Mellieħa and found there were about 25 unsafe ones. On Wednesday he will be presenting a report on these sites to Mepa to take action.

A Mepa spokesman said once the sites were identified by the council, the authority would try to track down the owners to build the eight-course wall.

If owners did not comply, walls would he built by the authority with the help of the council. The owner would then be charged on submitting a planning application.

Three days before Ryan's accident, he had gone to his friend's house next door to the site, across the road from the summer rental apartment where he was living with his family.

Before entering the house he put his flip flops on the parapet wall. When he was about to head home he realised the right one was missing.

These were his favourite flip flops which he had bought during a recent trip to Sweden where he played in an under-15 football tournament. So, three days after the shoe fell, he decided to go and get it.

His mother was cooking supper at about 7.30 p.m. when Ryan told her he was going to pop by his friend's house and would be back soon.

When he arrived near the construction site he spotted a ramped area and planned to walk down the slope. But when he stepped over the three courses of brick the ground gave way and he plummeted down a storey.

"I was frying chips when his friend turned up and told me Ryan had fallen. I thought it was a normal fall and was not prepared for what I was about to see," his mother recalled.

When she arrived Ryan's friend pointed into the building site. She saw her son kneeling on the ground holding his face. He had stood up after the fall but was dizzy and fell back to his knees. Thankfully, he had landed in a clear patch and not on a pile of bricks that probably were once part of the wall.

"My first instinct was to go down for him and use the same path he did. But his friend pulled me back and pointed out I'd end up falling too. So we accessed the site from the back.

"When I arrived near him he clung on to me and said: 'I didn't mean to'." Tears welled up in her eyes as she added: "It's like he was more scared I'd get angry at him than the actual fall."

After that he lost consciousness.

"The only thing I remember is falling and trying to break the fall with my arms. I don't remember much else except for an English man putting a newspaper round my neck to support it," Ryan said, adding he later woke up in hospital.

He was kept under observation for 24 hours and discharged with bruising on the right side of his face and a chipped tooth. "It was a miracle," his mother said repeatedly. "We call him superman now."