A skip full of rotting coffins and ominously full biohazard bags was left on the side of the street outside the Mosta cemetery, raising concerns of “public sanitation and common decency”.

Mosta mayor Edwin Vassallo said the remains were being dug up and put into skips after the planning authority issued orders to stop burning old coffins on site. “This decision not only goes against public sanitation regulations but also common decency,” he said.

Questions sent to the planning authority late yesterday remained unanswered at the time of writing.

Last May, the planning authority issued a policy on cemeteries which forbid burial waste from being burnt on site.

The skip was emptied yesterday morning, however it is not clear what was done with the remains and what was in the yellow bags.

Mosta councillor Keith Cassar, who first raised the alarm on social media about the remains left by the side of the street, said the bags clearly contained clothing. “I took photos of the bags and it was clear they had remains of [the deceased’s] clothing that had been buried along with the old coffins,” he said.

Mr Vassallo said if clothes were in the bags, it was very likely that human remains had been left in them too.

“If there were clothes, then there must have been remains of human bones in those bags. Something must be done,” he said.

Mr Vassallo has called for a meeting with the authorities to find an alternative solution.

Mosta resident Steve Micallef said this was not an isolated incident and it had happened a few times over the summer. “I have noticed this before but I never thought they were human remains, until I saw those bags. This is disgusting,” he said.

The Times of Malta yesterday published photos of the skip online, prompting a series of comments saying that this had happened in other localities.

John Sammut, a Lija resident, said he had seen a full skip outside the small Lija cemetery and a visit by this newspaper to the Addolorata cemetery yesterday revealed a number of skips on site, two of which contained old coffins.

Back in 2011, 10 gravediggers were charged with improperly disposing of human remains in skips after having cleaned out the graves.

The case continues.

The year before, the Health Ministry ordered an investigation after reports of bodily remains being openly burnt at the cemetery.