At around 11pm on Friday evening, a group of some 57 Italian students and their teachers were waiting for their bus in Bugibba to take them back to their hotel, when they found themselves victims of an ‘unprovoked’ attack, an eyewitness told this newspaper.

The eyewitness was on his way home when he saw police cars coming into Bugibba, and he stopped to see what was going on.

He was told by a police officer on site that two people had been injured in some form of scuffle that had taken place and that the police were still investigating the matter.

Curiosity sparked, the man made his way to the Emergency Room at Mater Dei Hospital where he saw and spoke to the victims; he described their state as ‘confused’ following the attack.

They were unable to say much about the incident but the witness was informed that he would not be able to speak to them due to the fact that police investigations were underway.

There was no apparent provocation behind the attack, he claimed, and the students, who are in Malta for a short while, had never seen their assailants before.

Two students were injured, he said; one was stabbed in the back of his left thigh with a pointed instrument and a second was hit on the head with a wooden board, which had been pulled off a nearby billboard.

One of the three teachers accompanying the students, a woman, was also pushed to the ground during the attack. The students were also unable to say how many people had attacked them.

“When I got there the police had already arrived, and the attackers had fled,” the eyewitness said. He also said that he found problems getting information from the police.

Police sources have confirmed that investigations into the attack are underway.