A 20-year-old woman was critically injured yesterday after she fell the height of about a storey into the shaft of a shop in Naxxar Road, San Ġwann, where maintenance works were in progress.

The woman, from Mqabba, who was about to start working in the shop, identified as Maypole confectioners, fell into an open shaft awaiting a lift to be installed at about 12.30 p.m., sources said.

She suffered head injuries. Although critical, her condition is stable and she is being kept under observation, the police said.

She was rushed to Mater Dei Hospital by ambulance after she was lifted out of the shaft by Civil Protection Department personnel.