The people behind excavation works that are believed to have caused a fatal building collapse in Ħamrun had reassured concerned residents that they had nothing to worry about, a resident claims.   

Miriam Pace, 54, died when her family home came crashing down on Monday.  Police have arrested six men in connection with the incident, all of whom are linked to the excavation works.  

In an impassioned post on Facebook, Rosette Zerafa, who says she lived close by and knew Pace well, said that both of them had spoken to the people responsible for the excavation works in the past as they feared for their safety. 

“These are the same people that stared at me and her (Pace) because we were worried and scared, especially her, because of the construction that was to begin on the land that was once a garden next door to her house and mine,” Zerafa wrote.  

She went on to say that the people behind the excavation works had insisted they were "not like other workers, and what had happened in other sites, will not happen here".

The Ħamrun building collapse was only the latest in a series of similar incidents that have left families homeless this passed year. 

“In the end, they claimed her life, they destroyed a family which is now in indescribable sorrow, and us and other surrounding families are left homeless and heart broken,” she wrote. 

Zerafa, who uploaded a photo of her an Pace along with the post, also wrote about the shock and horror of watching her friend and neighbour's house come crashing down and not knowing whether hers was next.  

“How can I not go crazy? I was terrified when the thought of her under rubble came to me,” she wrote.  

She ended by saying she hoped justice would be done. It was not right that the innocent should pay so high a price for those in the construction business.