Several caves in St Paul’s Bay are still in danger of collapsing as cracks on the rock face continue to emerge months after a girl was seriously injured when rocks toppled on her while she was swimming.

Mayor Graziella Galea took to social media to express concern about what she called a “precarious situation” along various parts of the coastline.

“The local council has, over the past months, brought this to the attention of higher authorities,” she said.

Complaints about unstable rocks at the seaside locality have long been brought to the attention of the authorities, with the issue making headlines in September when a girl was crushed under rocks at the area known as Il-Veċċja.

The bays along the St Paul’s Bay coastline are the result of very weak rock relative to the rest of the coast

The nine-year-old girl was swimming inside a cave there when rocks the cave collapsed with the girl suffering multiple skull fractures and having to undergo lengthy surgery.

Others swimming in the area narrowly missed getting hit by the rocks and the area was cordoned off for days.

Meanwhile, the mayor said that another site, close to the primary school had finally started being repaired in the past few days.

The area, which is heavily frequented by the hundreds of students who attend the school was closed off at road level while works were carried out by the Works Infrastructure Department and the local council.

The mayor said that the Civil Protection Department intervened on the unstable rock faces to reduce the current rock fall risks as much as possible. 

“A masonry and concrete retaining wall are to be built to contain the exposed rock and clay surface,” the mayor said.

According to geologist Peter Gatt, the bays along the St Paul's Bay coastline are the result of very weak rock relative to the rest of the coast.

This marks the difference between lower globigerina and middle globigerina limestone. The lower globigerina limestone fails rapidly when exposed to sea wave action.