A 19-year-old Frenchman who was crushed to death by a wall at a Swieqi maisonette was hanging on it before it collapsed, according to police sources.

Quentin Michel died from multiple internal injuries on Monday night – the first night of his holiday – after an ornamental wall collapsed on him, sources told The Sunday Times. Mr Michel had rented the maisonette with a group of friends and they were partying in the garden when the accident took place.

Police sources explained that Mr Michel was hanging on a freestanding wall in the garden that did not form part of the boundary wall and had been built some time ago.

A witness said Mr Michel had arrived earlier on Monday with a group of French friends.

On Monday night the group were having a party in the garden and, close to midnight, people in the area heard “a loud crashing sound” and realised something was wrong. The witness, who was close by, said he went to help out and saw the young man crushed under the wall.

Sources said a nurse who lives nearby intervened to help Mr Michel and administered cardio pulmonary resuscitation.

A police statement said an ambulance was quickly on the scene and took Mr Michel to Mater Dei Hospital where he was later certified dead.

This was the second tragic death of a young foreigner in Malta in a week. Fourteen-year-old German Johannes Werner Stenzel died after he fell from an eighth floor hotel room in Paceville.