Updated 12.20pm

If you thought you had a rough night’s sleep, just be thankful your bedroom window is not by Swieqi’s Wied Għomor.

A Times of Malta reader was snapped out of sleep at 5.15am on Friday, as a mechanical drilling sound drowned out the early-morning songbirds.

“Was it an early festa or some Maltese guerillas?” the reader sarcastically asked. “I’m not sure what was making the sound – all I know is that it was continuous from around 5.15am to 5.45am.”

The reader's hunch was not too far off the mark - an Armed Forces of Malta source confirmed that Malta's army was carrying out a number of military exercises in Pembroke. 

Malta consistently ranks as one of the EU’s noisiest member states, and noise pollution ranks as one of locals' biggest household complaints.

Earlier this year, Environment Minister Jose’ Herrera pledged to introduce noise pollution-specific legislation to create a “regulatory framework” to tackle noise pollution issues.

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