No one was badly hurt in the accident described by a police officer as “the miracle of the year”. At about 10.30 yesterday morning, the crane went out of control and plummeted down the road. It came to a halt towards the end of the road where it crashed into a white taxi which, in turn, hit several other parked cars.

The front part of the white taxi was completely crushed by the crane. On impact there was a domino effect and the cars parked along the side of the road were all pushed into each other. A total of eight cars were damaged in the incident – six at the bottom of the road and two at the top. As the cables were caught up, the railings of a balcony on a residential block were completely twisted out of shape.

When the press arrived on site the truck was stationary at the bottom of the road at its intersection with lower St Albert Street and had a tangled mass of power lines precariously hanging from its jib.

Police taped off the area and warned the curious citizens, who had inevitably gathered to see what had happened, to move away because the site was still possibly dangerous. EneMalta employees and the Civil Protection Unit were on scene to clear the power lines that had been caught in the crane’s descent.

The owner of Pennywise self-service, a shop near the bottom of the street, said she heard the screeching of brakes just before the lights went out and she saw the cars parked in front of her shop smash into each other.

Duty magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera appointed several experts to help in the inquiry and bring to light the details of what happened.