An elderly man was plucked to safety after his home in Triq San Federiku, Valletta was engulfed in flames and smoke.

Emanuel Abdilla, 72, whose neighbours said was bedridden, was found leaning outside his bedroom window with a blanket over his back to protect himself from the flames, raging behind him. He was gulping for air surrounded by a thick cloud of grey smoke.

The police said last night the man not in danger and his condition was stable.

The first to arrive were policemen stationed outside the House of Parliament, who borrowed a ladder and a fire extinguisher and tried to put out the fire. Eventually, they were joined by more policemen and firemen, who rushed inside to control the flames while a crew on the outside lifted him onto a stretcher and then to safety.

The man was conscious throughout and talking to the firemen, even calling out to his family.

Initially, the firemen were told that two people were trapped inside but Lucrezia Celeste, 79, who happened to be downstairs at the time, was unhurt.

The fire is understood to have started in the bedroom and then moved to his bed, where it became a blaze because of the mattress's flammable foam. Eventually, it engulfed the house, which is small and littered with items. Another elderly and bedridden man, Francisco Saverio Grech, 85, was critically injured in a similar fire in Merchants Street, Valletta last week.

His bed also caught fire when he used a defective hairdryer.

His daughter, Juanita Grech Zarb, 56, and her son Marcus John, 19, were unhurt.