“To the people laughing and saying ‘oh come on, it was sweet!’ No. There is nothing sweet about causing a fire which the wind could have developed into a bush fire. In many countries this would mean jail time. In Malta? Let’s see. Legal action will be taken,” Appelgren said while sharing an image of the burnt leftovers.

She shared an image of one of three areas left damaged by the proposal stunt.

“Once again – this is not an area of dead trees. It’s a highly protected tree zone with protected tamarisk trees. Anyone defending this – educate yourself,” she continued, before explaining the appropriate use of flares.

“Flares ignite at 191 degrees celsius and it’s extremely likely to cause fire if used on land. They are meant to be used at sea in emergency cases,” she said.

The video of the proposal was widely condemned online, though some people thought the idea was original, with the first person to post the footage captioning it with: “boyfriend of the year”.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CQB5ImYgqdP/?utm_source=ig_embed

Appelgren filed the report on behalf of the Heritage Parks Federation, and has noted that evidence has been collected and that authorities should be able to proceed with investigations.

Should legal action be taken if the stunt damaged protected Maltese trees?