Quake drill held on tourist island of Crete

"Exercise, exercise, exercise", read an emergency text message which alerted people on the island of Crete of a mock earthquake measuring 7.2 magnitude off the city of Iraklio.

Tourists rushed to evacuate the hotel, while workers in vests offered first aid to an injured woman in a tent as part of a quake drill dubbed "Minoas" after the mythical Cretan Bronze Age king.

"It's good, because then we know what we are doing in real situations," said British tourist Leah Pickles, 36, one of the hotel's residents in Heraklion.

Since a strong quake killed 143 people near Athens in 1999, tremors have not caused severe fatalities or damage but the Mediterranean country has struggled with other emergencies such as wildfires and floods in recent years.

A wildfire on the island of Rhodes last summer consumed swathes of land and forced the evacuation of some 19,000...