A 47-year-old man died in a three-vehicle crash on the coast road yesterday, the police said.

Victor Cropp, a Malta-born UK resident, is the third traffic fatality in the space of 24 hours, following the death of a man and woman in a horrific accident on the Hal Far Road on Monday.

In yesterday's accident, a 24-year-old woman from Germany living in Malta was also injured and taken to hospital.

The police said a coach full of Maltese passengers, none of whom was injured, was first involved in a head-on collision with a Mazda driven by the man. The coach was heading towards Swieqi and the car coming in the opposite direction, towards Bahar ic-Caghaq.

With the force of impact, the Mazda then crashed into a Subaru driven by the injured woman, the police said.

The accident took place at about 1 p.m. and the coast road was blocked to traffic until after 4.30 p.m.

Members of the Civil Protection Department were called to the scene to pull the victims out of the cars.

Duty magistrate Joseph Apap Bologna held an on-site inquiry and appointed several experts to assist in the investigations.

The investigations are being led by the Naxxar district police.