A 43-year-old man and his five-year-old son from St Paul's Bay lost their lives in a tragic maritime accident after the dinghy they were travelling in was struck by a boat off Ġnejna Bay in the early hours of Sunday.

Police said the incident happened at around 1am when they were informed that a boat, being driven by a 43-year-old man from Rabat, had reportedly collided with a small dinghy at sea.

Members of the Civil Protection Department were immediately dispatched to the area and launched a search operation for the two occupants of the dinghy.

The bodies of the father and son were later recovered from the sea by Civil Protection officers and brought ashore before being transferred to the mortuary.

The man was later identified as Gregory O'Brien, TVM news reported. His son was later identified as five-year-old Logan in a post by the school he attended, St Paul's Bay primary school, who shared a photo of the child.

Both the damaged dinghy, which sustained extensive damage in the collision, and the boat involved in the incident were lifted out of the water as part of the investigation.

Preliminary investigations revealed that only minutes before the collision, the father and his son had left a larger boat that was anchored off Ġnejna Bay and set off for a short trip in the small dinghy.

It was during this outing that the collision occurred.

Magistrate Dr Joe Mifsud has been appointed to lead a magisterial inquiry, while police investigations into the circumstances surrounding the fatal accident are ongoing.