Boy, 11, dies and British man missing after getting into difficulty swimming in Malta

Authorities are desperately searching for a British man who vanished while swimming at a popular beach in Malta yesterday afternoon, where an 11-year-old boy also drowned.

Around 1.15pm yesterday afternoon, police were called to Ramla Bay, Malta, to reports of a boy struggling to swim.

He was rescued and taken to a nearby hospital in Gozo, where he later died from his injuries.

A 37-year-old British man who was also swimming at the time is still missing, however.

Rescuers are continuing to search for the man, with volunteers from the Armed Forces of Malta and the Civil Protection Department launching an intensive search using dinghies and a helicopter.

There have been warnings about strong winds near Malta this week, with a local Meteorological Service citing potential for gale-force winds.

It’s unknown if these strong winds contributed to the difficulty the young boy and a British citizen got into while swimming in Malta.

The Times of Malta has reported that the young boy’s death marks the 16th drowning in the country this year.

It comes after last month, another British tourist drowned in Malta’s Blue Lagoon after using a slide on a boat and struggling to swim.

Malta’s Emergency Response rushed to the scene and took him by boat to Gozo, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

Welsh tourist Kieran Thomas Hughes also died after falling from a hotel balcony in St Julian, Malta, this summer.

Emergency services were called to the hotel early in the morning after the accident, but he died at the scene.

Kieran, 25, worked as a software engineer and had ‘a promising career ahead of him’, his father said.

A dad was also killed in Majorca after he fell 15 feet down a wall near a beach in July.

Ben Clark, 41, from Hampshire, died instantly when he plunged from the rock wall.

His partner had also fallen at the same spot, but she managed to get to a nearby hotel and raise the alarm.

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