Cliff face collapses at St Peter's Pool, Delimara  

Part of a cliff face has collapsed in Delimara near the popular St Peter's Pool, sending debris and large boulders crashing into the rocks below.

Police have cordoned off the area below Delimara Villas.

A mountain biker, who regularly rides along the area, said the collapse likely happened within the last few days.

“When I was riding on Monday at around 4pm, everything was intact," Duncan Caruana told Times of Malta. "But when I was there again on Thursday afternoon, the cliff had collapsed."

When Times of Malta visited the site on Friday, deep cracks could be seen on the edges of the cliff.

Geologist Peter Gatt said the stone from St Thomas Bay in Marsascala to Delimara Point in Marsaxlokk is “very weak” and susceptible to rapid erosion.

Photo: Jonathan Borg

“The Delimara peninsula is made up of middle globigerina and upper globigerina limestone," he explained. "Collapses like this recent one are common for the area and will continue to be frequent."

The sea further quickens the process, he added.

Photo: Duncan Caruana

“The erosion there is so rapid that we are seeing the landscape in the area change within our lifetimes,” Gatt said, adding that the peninsula should be constantly monitored by geologists.

Photo: Jonathan Borg

St Peter's Pool is a popular swimming point with locals and tourists during the summer months. 

The coastline around Malta is susceptible to rock falls.

Last July a 22-year-old woman, Mirabelle Falzon died after being crushed under a rockfall in Marsascala. She had been swimming in an area known as Munxar, within the limits of St Thomas Bay, when the tragedy happened.

The previous year people on a boat reported a lucky escape when rocks fell into the sea at the area known as Tlett Ħofriet, Delimara.

And elsewhere, part of Fomm ir-Riħ bay was closed off  in August last year because of a rockfall and the danger of further collapses, exactly a year after an architect's warning on Times of Malta.