An Aleppo Pine tree planted along Rabat's Saqqajja road was stolen by thieves less than 24 hours later, Infrastructure Minister Ian Borg said on Saturday. 

The minister said that the theft was disappointing but that the stolen tree would be replaced.

“We will plant another one and hundreds more,” he wrote on Facebook. 

The Aleppo Pine was one of 61 trees which the minister had promised to plant along the busy road. 

Dr Borg has come under fire for his ministry’s plans to widen a stretch of road from the bottom of the tree-lined road leading to Rabat all the way to Mrieħel.

The plans, dubbed the Central Link project, will require authorities to uproot more than 500 mature trees and transplant several hundred more. 

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