The mayor of Sliema has been left with facial injuries after he asked a group of people to stop relieving themselves in public. 

The incident happened on Wednesday when Pillow told them it was illegal to  urinate on the rocks in one of the locality's bays.

Mobile footage from the scene shows a woman swear at Pillow, call him a "paedophile" and say she can urinate wherever she wants.

When Pillow responds by telling the group, "you cannot piss in public", a man is seen throwing a can at him. A photograph of the PN mayor shows a cut beneath his left eye. 

Speaking to Times of Malta, Pillow said he had been in the area to check on an unrelated complaint that wastewater was being discharged onto the rocks when he encountered the group.

“They were being rowdy and I was on the phone with a friend and I had no intention of interacting with them,” he said.

“But when I saw the woman urinating on the ground I could not just stand idly by. It’s a disgraceful thing to do and so shamelessly while there are people enjoying the beach and walking on the promenade.”

When Pillow told the woman to stop, he said she became aggressive and began to curse him out, which prompted him to start filming the exchange.

“She started swearing at me profusely and telling me ‘I can do whatever the f**k I want’ and I told her obviously you cannot, this is a public place,” he continued.

“This is when a man who was with her grabbed a can and threw it straight at me from about five or six metres away. It hit me right in the face.”

The police were immediately called, he added, however, they did not arrive on the scene in time to catch the perpetrator.

“My biggest regret is that they didn’t catch him. Now there’s a police report and we’ll see where it goes from there. They have (an image) of his face, they know what he looks like.”

More police needed in Sliema

Pillow said he would be asking Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri to meet him and called for more police presence in Sliema.

“We weren’t selected for community policing, but even that I think will not be enough. We desperately need police patrolling in Sliema because the situation is spiralling out of control,” he said.

“Every day we are constantly dealing with public drunkenness in large groups, underage drinking in public parks, public urination, people having sex in public, our cars and property constantly vandalised. This cannot go on.”

“Yes, we have a police station, but there aren’t enough people and they cannot possibly keep up with the barrage of issues that crop up every day."

Mario Fava, who heads the Local Councils Association, revealed the incident and said it was unacceptable that councillors and mayors were attacked for trying to keep the public order.  

“Those who cannot behave themselves in public have no place being on our streets,” Fava said.  

In a statement, both the Sliema council and the Nationalist Party condemned the attack.