Personnel from the Armed Forces of Malta’s Explosives Ordnance Disposal (EOD) yesterday recovered a considerable amount of explosives that had been thrown into the sea close to Anchor Bay, limits of Mellieha.
The police said they had been tipped-off that someone had disposed of tanks containing explosive material in the sea close to Popeye Village on Saturday afternoon.
An AFM spokesman told The Malta Independent that the tanks were visible from the shoreline yesterday morning.
Explosives could also be seen floating in the sea and the police kept them under constant surveillance until personnel from the EOD and the Civil Protection Department arrived on site in a boat at about 9.30am.
However, the sea was too rough and the recovery operation had to be postponed by a couple of hours. Shortly after 1pm, the AFM spokesman said the operation had been successful and the explosives had all been recovered.
He said EOD personnel had recovered an amount of explosives in bags, three tanks full of explosive material, as well as some petards and firecrackers referred to as “beraq” and “bombiet zghar”.
He said all material would be photographed and disposed of accordingly. The total amount of explosive material recovered was not divulged.
In a statement, the police said that 18 empty tanks were also recovered from the bottom of the seabed.
Meanwhile, in a short statement, the management of Popeye Village said it wanted to clarify that Popeye Village had absolutely no connection with the search for explosive material in Anchor Bay.
No such explosive material was found, or indeed was in any way thought to have been held at Popeye Village, said the statement.
Although it is not known who could have disposed of the explosive material, it is highly likely that this incident was the result of a reaction to the fireworks explosion in a Naxxar garage on 12 March, which left two dead and three houses demolished.
The Naxxar explosion was caused by illegal fireworks production and two other garages in the vicinity were also found to be full of explosive material during the search and rescue operation following the accident.
Naturally, the accident was followed by numerous reports to the police regarding allegations of illegal fireworks production and a number of people have also been charged in court since the tragic event, which has been given extensive coverage in the media.
The possibility of granting amnesty to people who inform the police they have fireworks stored illegally, was discussed on the Friday night show on TVM, Xarabank.
During the programme, Justice and Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici said the victims of the Naxxar explosion would be given assistance and compensation for the damages incurred.
He added that Parliament would be discussing possible amendments to the law regulating fireworks production. Asked about the issue of granting amnesty, Dr Mifsud Bonnici said everything would be taken into consideration.