Most of the people who were injured when an open-top double-decker bus slammed into a tree in Zurrieq on Monday have been released from Mater Dei Hospital, Health Minister Chris Fearne told The Malta Independent.

Many needed to be treated for shock, while others were treated for minor injuries sustained.

Forty-one of the 50 who were injured were discharged, while nine are still in hospital. Four of these are still in crticial condition, including two children Fearne said.

Two of the patients still in crticial condition underwent serious surgical procedures, the minister said.

Walter Busuttil, medical director at Mater Dei Hospital, told the media that most of the injuries were to the head, neck and upper extremities.

The driver of the double-decker, aged 24, was this morning called in by the police for questioning.

The man had reportedly been on his first day on the job after he had worked for the same company for some weeks last summer.

The two people who died, a Spanish woman and a Belgian man, were certified dead on site.