Five firefighting units from the Civil Protection Department were dispatched to Mtarfa valley on Tuesday afternoon to put out a grass fire. 

Firefighters received reports of flames in the rural area between Rabat and Mtarfa at around 3pm, a CPD spokesman said.

They were still working to put out the flames three hours later. Nobody was hurt, the spokesman added. 

Dry summer weather creates ideal conditions for grass fires to break out and spread. Earlier this year, a far larger grass fire in Miżieb scorched roughly one-third of the Mellieħa woodland, destroying an estimated 4,600 trees.