A man posting on Facebook said that he was hit by a hunter's pellets, after the latter was shooting less than 50m away from a road.

This happened on the first day of the hunting season, the man said, which would mean that the incident occurred on Wednesday.

Johann Mifsud said: "I was cycling with a friend of mine on the road between Mtahleb and Bahrija, where there is the zoo. Suddenly I hear these shots and felt lead pellets hitting me on my right side. One on my waist, one just above my knee, and it was bleeding a bit, and the third on my calf muscle. In the latter case, the pellet stuck to the skin. Didn't notice this at first, but when showering later, I removed it with my finger nails and it fell in the shower tray, making that metallic sound. The hunter was less than 50 meters from the road when he fired. I yelled at him telling him that he had hit me, and that they were too close to the road, but he replied something stupid like since it's not a main road they can fire from close. Real f***ing idiots, and menaces. Had he shot just slightly higher, he would have got me on the head."