A file photo of a re-enactment at Rinella. Photo: Matthew MirabelliA re-enactment at Fort Rinella became all too real when an 18-year-old man from Tarxien was accidentally struck by a sword and critically injured.
The accident took place on Tuesday at about 12.45pm when the victim was acting out a duel with a colleague, a 25-year-old man from Santa Venera.
The police said that they did not believe there had been any malicious intent.
The victim was rushed to hospital, where he spent the night in intensive care before being transferred to another ward yesterday.
Sources said the threat to the man’s life was not the actual injury sustained but infections that could develop as a result.
According to Fondazzjoni Wirt Artna chairman Mario Farrugia the incident occurred in front of guests during a scheduled daily tour of Fort Rinella.
The fighters had practised the duel extensively and carried it out on a daily basis many times before, he said.
Of course, a blade is a blade.When there’s force behind it, it can still be dangerous
The freak accident appears to have occurred when the victim accidentally came into the path of the other fighter’s sword.
Fort Rinella, a late-19th-century British coastal fort in Kalkara, is a major tourist attraction.
Open to the public as a living history museum, it includes regular fighting displays and a large-scale historical re-enactment including cavalry, musketry and military drills.
Mr Farrugia said that all re-enactors had some degree of bodily protection, including face masks, but this was limited for reasons of “authenticity”.
He stressed, however, that the weapons used for such demonstrations were practice swords, which, although made of metal, had blunt edges and rounded points.
“Of course, a blade is a blade. When there’s force behind it, it can still be dangerous,” he said.
In 2005, an Argentinian opera singer suffered serious injuries to his face during rehearsals for a staged sword fight in Charles Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette at the Manoel Theatre.