A young Dutchman was left fighting for his life and five others were injured when a car mounted a pavement and ploughed into pedestrians early on Friday morning.
The accident happened in George Borg Olivier Street, at 4.50am, in the area between The City of London Bar and the San Giljan waterpolo club.
Minister Chris Fearne, on Twitter, said that one of the injured was in critical condition.
The 20-year-old driver of a Subaru Impresa, from Birkirkara, lost control of the car, hit the pavement and crashed into the pedestrians.
The police said that the among the eight people taken to hospital were four Dutchmen aged between 19 and 25, two Croatian women aged 21 and 23, and two Englishmen aged 25.
The police later said that a 25-year-old Dutch man is in serious condition, while one of the Britons suffered serious injuries. Three other Dutch men and the other Briton were slightly hurt while the Croatian women were unhurt.
Eyewitnesses said the car also uprooted two trees, and hit a lamppost, which was completely twisted over. Magistrate Francesco Depasquale is conducting an inquiry.
A first responder who gave first aid to the worst casualty has given a grim account of the situation.
Brazilian national Maria Escalda, a DJ who is also trained in first aid, said she rushed down to the scene soon after the crash. She said the 25-year-old, was unconscious and unresponsive. Escalda said she and another woman performed CPR on the man.
“At first we thought that the man was dead, he was not moving. We kept going on and on, trying harder,” the woman told Newsbook. “The ambulance was not coming, I was screaming to the police. We kept going on until the ambulance came. It did not actually take that long but in a situation like that every second feels like an eternity.”
Escalda said paramedics managed to revive him after using a defibrillator.
She said the man’s friends were sitting on the pavement, in shock. Luckily, many of them had only suffered scratches and bruises. The driver of the car, who is Maltese, ran away from the scene of the accident.
“I could see that all the airbags were all out. The car was half destroyed. I was telling the police ‘where is the driver? Go after him.’ Thank God they found him,” Escalda said.
“He had a lot of head injuries. He was covered in blood. I don’t know how I managed to do this because I was never in a situation like that before. I just wanted to save his life, to do something. I hope he is OK.”