Updated 12.40pm

A man is dead and six more are grievously injured following an early morning crash between an ambulance and a car in Xemxija.

The accident happened on Selmun Hill at around 1.20am and involved an ambulance driven by a 55-year-old Italian man living in Mosta and a Daihatsu Sirion driven by an Englishman living in Fgura. 

The Daihatsu Sirion was carrying three passengers, three English and one Maltese, aged between 20 and 29 and all living in Fgura. The man riding in the car's passenger seat was killed in the crash, police said, while the driver and the two other passengers are in hospital with grievous injuries. 

People riding in the Red Cross ambulance were also hurt. An 89-year-old Mellieħa woman being taken home from Mater Dei Hospital was grievously hurt, as were a 43-year-old man from Mellieħa and a 51-year-old Mġarr woman. A 38-year-old St Paul's Bay woman also aboard was slightly injured, as was the ambulance driver.  

One of the ambulance passengers is the daughter of the 89-year-old patient and was accompanying her home, Mater Dei Hospital said in a statement issued this afternoon. 

Five ambulances and two police rapid response units were rushed to the scene to treat the wounded and take them to hospital. 

Magistrate Natasha Galea Sciberras has ordered an inquiry into the incident and appointed various experts to help her investigate. Police investigations are ongoing.