Every year, the defence ministry pays out around €3m in compensation claims for damage caused during military exercises, the Telegraaf reports on Tuesday.

Most of the money goes to repairing roads, lamp posts and railway barriers, the paper said. Farmers also often make claims for damage to their crops and fields.
But not all claims are straightforward. Last year the owner of a cockatoo was given €3,500 in compensation. The bird was so shocked by the noise of a passing F16 jet from the nearby Volkel airbase that it became confused and ate the egg it had just laid, the paper says.
And in Tilburg, an organ tuner successfully sued for compensation for the hours he could not work because of aircraft noise.