Sign up for Simon Calder’s free travel emails for expert advice and savings deals
Receive Simon Calder’s travel emails
A drill on a Greek tourist island today saw tourists evacuate their hotels quickly, but it turned out to be a fake earthquake test.
“Movement, movement, movement,” read an emergency text message warning the people of Crete that a simulated magnitude 7.2 earthquake has occurred off the coast of the city of Heraklion.
Tourists hurriedly evacuated hotels while vested workers injured an injured woman in a tent as part of an earthquake drill named “Minoan” after the mythical Bronze Age king of Crete. First aid was given to the patient.
“It’s a good thing because we can see what we’re doing in a real situation,” said British tourist Leah Pickles, 36, one of the hotel guests in Heraklion.
The drill took place just six days after an actual magnitude 3.8 earthquake struck the island’s southwest coast.
“We have to be prepared for any scenario. We hope it will never be necessary, but we need to conduct a full-scale exercise involving all parties to strengthen our preparedness.” ,” Minister of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Vasilis Kikilias said at the scene.
After the training, many posted on social media:
Greece is surrounded by multiple fault lines and is frequently shaken by earthquakes.
Although there have been no serious deaths or damage caused by earthquakes since a strong earthquake struck near Athens in 1999, killing 143 people, the Mediterranean country has experienced emergencies such as wildfires and floods in recent years. I am troubled by this.
Last summer’s wildfires in Rhodes burned large swaths of land and forced the evacuation of some 19,000 tourists and locals, but weeks before Europe’s deadliest blaze broke out, at least 20 People were killed and an area larger than New York burned in the northern state of Evros.
Separately on Tuesday, a wildfire broke out near the city of Chania in western Crete, forcing authorities to evacuate part of a naval base and an adjacent school.
Fire brigade officials later announced that the fire was extinguished.
