Paceville police last night conducted what is being described as a heroic operation to remove hundreds of young people from St George’s Bay and herd them into the road.
The operation took place at around 2:30 am, when revelers spilled out from Paceville’s clubs and onto the already crowded beach.
Around 15 officers descended onto the beach and, despite being heavily outnumbered, instructed the youths to leave. Against all odds, the crowd promptly complied and were herded onto the pavement and into the street a few metres away, where they were allowed to continue chatting and drinking without their masks on.
Superintendent Jonathan Spiteri, who led the operation, said his officers had spent the past week conducting training exercises to be able to carry out the complex mission with “swiftness and precision”, adding that it was similar to the Battle of Thermopylae, in which a few hundred Spartan warriors faced off against the full might of the Persian army.
“Having such a large crowd on the beach is obviously a big public health risk right now, so we moved the youths onto the road, which Covid is known to avoid because it’s afraid of getting hit by a car,” Spiteri said.
Asked why the police did not take similarly swift action against fans of Ħamrun Spartans, who last week held an impromptu street party while officers looked on, Spiteri replied:
“You can’t really compare. Here we had a large crowd of mostly foreigners, and in Ħamrun there was a large crowd of mostly Maltese people. Totally different scenarios.
“And whereas here we knew what would happen, the police in Ħamrun had absolutely no idea that supporters would gather en masse, and were taken totally by surprise. Dispersing them was absolutely impossible,” he added.
Meanwhile, Tourism Minister Clayton Bartolo said that, following the closure of language schools, he was confident that young, mostly unvaccinated tourists would quickly return home and not continue to choke the streets of Paceville while looking for a good time.
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