A 20-year-old woman from Birkirkara was killed in a traffic accident in St Anne Street in Floriana yesterday evening, close to where a young man died in a similar incident last month.

The woman was a passenger in a black Renault Clio that crashed into a tree, the police said.

The driver, another woman aged 20, from Tarxien, was seriously injured and taken to hospital.

The car was heading out of Floriana at about 7.15 p.m. and had almost reached Portes des Bombes, a few metres down the road from the Lion Fountain, when it skidded and went out of control, according to sources.

The vehicle ended up against a tree in what has for a long time been a notorious black spot.

Members from the Civil Protection Department had to use cutting equipment to lift the two women out of the wrecked vehicle, with a team from Mater Dei Hospital ready to jump in with medical assistance.

Sources at the scene said medics applied CPR on the passenger but were unable to save her.

The street was closed to traffic after the accident.

An eyewitness, Reuben Gauci, posted a comment on timesofmalta.com: "I saw her face full of blood but I couldn't save her with my phone call. She must have been already dead...

"Drive carefully everyone...There is nothing to add," he said before expressing his condolences to family and friends. Magistrate Doreen Clarke appointed a team of court experts to help her in an inquiry. The police are investigating the circumstances of the accident.

Only last month, a young man lost his life when the Mercedes he was a passenger in smashed into a tree further down the road on the opposite side.