Immigrants caused a disturbance yesterday at the Safi detention centre where rocks were thrown at a Civil Protection Department fire truck.

It is understood that the CPD received a call at about 3.30pm, claiming that there were mattresses on fire in Safi. The CPD headed out to tend to the fire, only to find that the mattress in question was actually inside the Safi compound. Once there, the truck headed in to put the blaze out, only to be showered by rocks and stones which were hurled by detained immigrants within the compound.

The fire crew turned back out and headed for safety, but the immigrants continued to hurl rocks and stones at Armed Forces personnel who were on duty at the time. The immigrants then set fire to two sentry boxes, and then began throwing cans of deodorant and bottles of alcohol into the flames.

These started to explode and sounded very much like gunfire, however, guards at the gate said that the immigrants were simply hurling anything that had alcohol into the fire.

Judging from past experience of riots at the Safi barracks, the immigrants did not seem up to a showdown and merely stayed inside the compound.

To be on the safe side, the Malta International Airport’s Fire Team stationed a truck just within the MIA’s crash gate boundary in the event of any immigrants deciding to make a trip onto the runway area. By 4.30pm, the situation had calmed down.