Recently it was reported that part of the cliffside at Fomm ir-Rih collapsed into the tiny bay along the shore. The bay, found in the limits of Rabat and Mgarr, is now covered with rock debris and clay that fell.

Maria Scerri was on site when all this happened. In comments to Gwida.mt, she shared the horrific experience of witnessing it all. “My friend and I were there during and when everything fell,” Maria starts off, sharing she was accompanied by her friend Noelene. Both of them were thankfully at the edge of the bay and didn’t get injured.

“A scary experience and we’re still so shocked. We couldn’t go back up and we were shocked because it all happened so fast. To top it off, there wasn’t reception.” Maria shares that this all happened on 27^th July and upon arriving at the spot, everything looked fine.

It wasn’t the girls’ first time there, having been to that same area while at school as part of fieldwork for one of their subjects. “Who would’ve known that somewhere where you went with teachers years ago could transform like this.”

It seems that one small section fell but then “a few minutes later we heard a noise and more kept falling,” Maria said, sharing quite the shocking photo of a puff of smoke as a result. “We ran away and our flip flops were full of clay mud and we couldn’t hurry up. We started shaking and screaming.”

We’re sad to see the bay go, but thankfully these girls didn’t get hurt. There are a number of picturesque bays around the islands. Choose wisely when venturing to a new spot. One needs to be aware of the natural processes of these areas that could come at any given time.

Maria Scerri