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Greece conducts quake drill on traveler island of Crete

Exercise, exercise, exercise, checked out an emergency situation text which alerted people on the island of Crete of a mock earthquake measuring 7.2 off the city of Heraklion.

Travelers hurried to leave the hotel, while workers in vests offered emergency treatment to an injured woman in a camping tent as part of a quake drill called Minoas after the mythical Cretan Bronze Age king.

It's great, due to the fact that then we know what we are doing in real scenarios, said British traveler Leah Pickles, 36, one of the hotel's citizens in Heraklion.

Greece is often rattled by earthquakes as it beings in numerous faults.

Considering that a strong quake eliminated 143 individuals near Athens in 1999, tremors have not triggered extreme casualties or damage however the Mediterranean nation has had problem with other emergencies such as wildfires and floods recently.

A wildfire on the island of Rhodes last summer taken in swathes of land and required the evacuation of some 19,000 travelers and residents, weeks before Europe's deadliest blaze killed a minimum of 20 people and destroyed an area larger than New York in the Evros province in the north.

Separately on Tuesday, a wildfire near the city of Chania in western Crete forced authorities to leave part of a marine base and nearby schools, hours before a real quake measuring 3.8 hit off the island's southwestern coast.

A fire brigade authorities stated later the blaze had actually eased off.

(source: Reuters)