An 18-year-old was only “a layer of skin away” from losing his life when his throat was slit during a scuffle with foreigners, which left him and his friend grievously injured in Paceville in the early hours of yesterday.

Kleaven Cassar, the father of the young man, spoke to Times of Malta to make a heartfelt appeal for stricter police enforcement at Malta’s entertainment hub where, he claimed, foreigners were walking around armed with pocket knives and itching for a fight.

Mr Cassar, from Msida, was woken up by a phone call at 4.45am on Monday by his son’s friend saying: “Ejja għax daruna” (“Come quickly, because they’ve encircled us”).

He jumped into his car and seven minutes later, when he reached the Paceville lights, he received another call, this time from his son: “Pa where are you? Come soon because blood is gushing out.”

When Mr Cassar reached Triq San Ġorġ, the scene of the incident, he found his son and his two friends “in a pool of blood”. One had a slash wound to his head while his son’s arm had been slit open. “But that was before I saw his throat had been slashed – it was all open and blood was flowing everywhere.”

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