Police investigate after youths filmed hurling bottles in Swieqi

A police investigation is underway after a group of youths were filmed shouting and throwing drink containers from balconies in a Swieqi residential street on Sunday evening.

The footage, which was shared in a residents’ Facebook group, shows groups of youths lining balconies and roofs, jeering noisily and throwing cans, bottles and liquid into the street below. It is unclear what, if anything, sparked the behaviour.

A police spokesperson said officers arrived on the scene “within minutes" to restore order, and that investigations were underway to determine who among the youths had been responsible for the behaviour, and who may have just been present.

The police wanted to “send a strong message that antisocial behaviour will not be tolerated,” the spokesperson said.

One resident who witnessed the incident on Triq S .Cannataci told Times of Malta he saw one youth throw a glass bottle onto a car. They ignored his shouts at them to stop.

“It’s every day, but Sunday night was the worst one,” he said, adding that while the police “did a good job, they can only do so much”.

While past years had seen incidents of antisocial behaviour, things were “so much worse this year” with the completion of the apartment blocks housing the youths shown in the video, which he said appeared to be dedicated to short-let accommodation.

The blocks shown in the video are now being used by “hundreds” of young people, he said. “It’s only young tourists coming to party, living by their own rules,” he said.

The resident, who asked not to be named, said that while he and his girlfriend used to go for evening walks in the area, his girlfriend was now afraid to walk in the streets at that time.

The mayor of Swieqi wrote to the prime minister about the incident, stressing that residents were experiencing such behaviour daily.  

“Year in, year out, matters getting worse”, Noel Muscat wrote to Robert Abela. “We have been reporting these problems for 10 years! I suppose that enough is enough. I honestly hope that this time meaningful measures are taken”.  

While thanking the community police and Malta Tourism Authority (MTA) for their “tremendous assistance”, Muscat emphasised the need for “determined and effective enforcement”.

Sunday’s incident is not the first such instance to befall the locality, which has endured years of antisocial behaviour. 

In September, the Ombudsman agreed to open an investigation into authorities’ failures to protect residents' rights in the community following a request from former PL minister Evarist Bartolo.

A month earlier, Muscat had called for a temporary suspension on permits for short-let properties, regular police patrols at night and on-the-spot fines in an effort to tackle the issue.

Problems on the promenade

Swieqi was not the only locality to experience antisocial behaviour on Sunday night. A video taken by a member of the Sliema Residents Association shows a large group of young people chanting loudly on the promenade close to a docked commercial vessel.

A spokesperson for the residents told Times of Malta that locals were forced to endure such scenes “every night, starting at 11pm when the party boats return to Sliema”.

“Once the boats dock, the passengers who would obviously have been drinking for hours on board, are disgorged to continue carousing, cause fights and vomit on the promenade, then use the surrounding streets as a toilet”, she said.

The Sliema Residents Association had reported such behaviour to authorities “for over two years, but to no avail”.

“On one occasion Transport Malta enforcement did turn up, which was effective in giving us a one-week respite, but because they didn't return to enforce discipline consistently, the situation was soon 'back to normal'," she said,

"The new normal for residents of Malta's seaside towns: rowdy lout tourists, noise, damage to property, swimwear in residential areas and filth on the streets”. 

The spokesperson noted that while regulations stipulated that boats should only emit minimal noise when entering harbour, “when they do turn down the amplified music, we can hear the DJs whipping up the drunken party-goers into a wild chorus”. 

The association demanded that residents’ quality of life “not be sacrificed on the altar of mass tourism”.

On-the-spot fines for non-residents engaging in antisocial behaviour were introduced earlier this month.

Home Affairs Minister Glenn Bedingfield will tour communities in the coming weeks to gain first-hand knowledge about residents’ concerns and suggestions for issues of public safety and law and order.