The army has launched an internal inquiry to establish the circumstances which led one of its soldiers to eat a poisonous beetle last week.

The Armed Forces of Malta said the incident did not happen during one of its official training programmes but it still felt the need to investigate the matter.

Darren Mangion, a 30-year-old soldier from Żejtun, is in intensive care after eating the beetle in a dare with colleagues during a lunch break.

Mr Mangion, who has a one-year-old daughter and is stationed at Luqa airport, ingested the potentially lethal blister beetle on Thursday afternoon. Within 24 hours he suffered complete renal failure and fell into a coma. His situation had improved slightly, medical sources said. The blister beetle, or oil beetle, is one of the rarer kinds and there were 10 species of it. This insect has a distinctive shape as its abdomen is very exposed.

It contains a powerful poison, cantharidin, which can be deadly to humans if ingested. If the beetle comes in contact with skin it oozes the oily poison that forms blisters.