A 14-year-old who allegedly stabbed a man in the chest in a Sliema apartment on Tuesday afternoon used a kitchen knife, according to a police spokesman.
Police investigators are still trying to establish the link between the Maltese teenager and the 21-year-old alleged victim, who is of British origin and lives in Mosta.
They are speaking to witnesses who were in the apartment when the stabbing occurred. Some of the eyewitnesses are believed to be children.
On Tuesday afternoon, shortly after 4.30pm, police officers patrolling the area were informed that a young man had been stabbed. They spotted the 21-year-old bleeding heavily, sitting on a step in the street.
He had suffered serious injuries and was taken to hospital and operated on.
The teen was arrested in the area of the apartment in Locker Street. He, too, had suffered serious injuries compatible with being beaten, the police said.
The stabbing happened in the top-most apartment of St John’s Flats.
Dried drops of blood were still visible on the pavement outside the apartment building and leading all the way up the stairs of the block on Wednesday morning.
They spotted the 21-year-old bleeding heavily, sitting on a step in the street
Neighbours said that a French woman lived in the apartment where the incident happened with her son and daughter. It is not clear whether the 14-year-old lived there or if he is a friend or relative of the family.
One neighbour said that he did not see or hear anything unusual until he heard noises in the stairwell and opened the door to find the area swarming with police officers.
Another neighbour was at the beach when the incident happened and received a call advising her not to return for the time being as the building was cordoned off by the police.
A magisterial inquiry is being held and police investigations are continuing.
The incident happened almost a year on from a double murder on the same street.
On August 18 last year, Christian Pandolfino, 58, and his partner, Ivor Maciejowski, 30, were shot dead in their house located further up Locker Street and across the road.
Three men have been charged over the double murder.