Crete is a favourite holiday destination but badly behaved British tourists are not welcome. Hotel and business owners, municipal officials and even the mayor of the town of Malia, on the northeastern coast of Crete, closed off the island's main highway, disrupting traffic and handing out leaflets, saying they were fed up. "They get drunk, they exhibit themselves in front of our eyes. We won't put up with these acts," one of the protesters told Reuters television.

The protesters want the government to crack down on tourist agencies promoting sex and fun for young tourists in Malia, more police to maintain order, and more controls on nightclubs which they say encourage excessive drinking with cheap drinks.

"We cant take it anymore, we have reached the end of our rope. Order has to be restored," said one Malia resident during the protest.

For years, Malia, considered the Ibiza of Greece, has been a popular tourist destination for British tourists under thirty and thousands flock to it every year. TV has shown pictures of apparently drunk youths engaging in public sexual acts, violence and vandalism.

As a result of the violent incidents, shopowners say they close up early and cover their shops with tarp before the evening tourist rush, when their windows are attacked with beer bottles and other objects.

One local shop owner said he no longer ventured out at night with his family because it was too dangerous.

"It is very, very dangerous. We live here and we put netting on our shops to protect them. We cannot go out at night, we can't go for a walk or sit in a cafe. We close the shops and leave," he said.

In 2006 a British woman fell from an apartment in Malia and was impaled on a spike after a drunken argument with her boyfriend. In 2003 a British tourist bit off the nose of a bartender who asked him to leave, and in 1999 a man died after brawling with two British tourists.

26 July 2007