No one was injured when a balcony collapsed onto a busy pavement on the Gzira seafront late on Thursday morning - nine months after the local council and the police were warned about its condition. 

Safety concerns had been raised by a business owner in that street who wrote to the council on December 17 saying that the balcony was visibly unstable.  

The local council forwarded the report to the police on the same day, Mayor Conrad Borg Manche' told Times of Malta on Thursday, insisting that it is the police who are responsible for action on such matters.  

The collapsing balcony sounded like “an earthquake” the businesswoman said.

She said it was fortunate that no one was injured, given that many people walk there on their way to the  bank, several shops, and restaurants, and their homes.   

People sometimes would take shelter under the balcony during the rain, she said.