Marsascala went some 15 hours without electricity supply between Wednesday and Thursday, leaving residents reeling from the effects of the current heatwave.

Many residents of the seaside town took to social media to vent their frustrations, particularly at having to deal with the scorching summer heat for so long and because they have had to throw away full freezers of food which has now melted as a result of the heat.

The power went out at around 11pm on Wednesday night, leaving residents to contend with a night’s sleep in temperatures which remained as high as 32 degrees celsius in some parts with no way of respite.

By Thursday afternoon, the power in many areas was yet to return.

Enemalta said in a brief statement that two faults on a high voltage cable had led to the power cut.

“An Enemalta team was deployed on site as soon as the fault developed to conduct the necessary repair works. Due to the extent of the works on the effected underground cables, the repairs are still underway”, they said.

Until these works are finalised Enemalta is supplying electricity through generators connected to substations, where possible.

Energy Minister Miriam Dalli on Thursday described the outages - which have become common during the night in recent days and weeks - are "unacceptable" and said she would be doing everything in her power to remedy the situation.