A 38-year-old doctor from Qormi died tragically yesterday morning when a ceiling of the Corinthia Jerma Palace Hotel in Marsascala. – which closed earlier this year – collapsed, killing him on the spot. The incident took place at around 9.30am.

The doctor, Saviour Cilia, was said to have purchased a number of the hotel’s water tanks and was helping his brother, 43-year-old Carmelo, dismantle a tank on the hotel’s top floor. Sources said that the ceiling suddenly gave way and fell on the doctor, who died on impact. His brother was not injured because he was just a few feet away.

Members of the Civil Protection Department and doctors from the Emergency Response Team rushed on scene but Dr Cilia was certified dead.

It took rescuers around two hours to free the doctor from the debris that had crushed him to death.

His brother, visibly shocked, told police that nothing could be done to save his brother, a father of two. He said this is the second brother who died tragically. Three years ago, another brother died when he fell off a roof in Qormi.