A total of 90 persons have been reported as ‘drowned’ since 2006, Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Abela said in response to a parliamentary question put forward this evening.

The nationalities of the deceased are as follows: Maltese, English, Japanese, Russian, Polish, Somalian, Norwegian, Chad, German, Eritrean, Spanish, French, Bulgarian, Irish, Australian, Indian, Tunisian, Slovak and Swedish.

The majority of the persons who drowned in Maltese terrirorial waters were Maltese and English. The youngest is a 16 year-old English teenage boy who drowned in 2006 while the oldest is an 83 year-old Maltese woman who drowned in 2011.

A total of 25 people who have yet to be identified have been found and three people have been reported as suspected to have drowned in two separate incidents, all in Maltese waters since 2006.

An 11-year-old Maltese boy is reported to have drowned in 2008 while two French men, 40 and 14, drowned in a small boat in Xlendi while trying to get to their cabin cruiser.