Parts of Groningen were hit by one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded in the province in the early hours of Friday, as the ground continues to settle after the extraction of natural gas.

The quake measured 3.4 on the Richter scale and struck at 1.16am, with its epicentre close to the village of Zeerijp. It was felt across a wide area but there are no reports of damage so far. There was an aftershock measuring 2 on the Richter scale at 6.30am.

Local broadcaster RTV Noord said hundreds of alerts came in through its quake-monitoring service and that the tremor was felt “from the German border to the Drenthe border”.

One Loppersum resident told the station they first heard rumbling before the shaking started. In Zeerijp, Jasper Jacobs said he was jolted awake by “an incredibly loud bang”, unlike anything he had experienced before.

Another resident, Max Siccama, said he briefly lost control of his car during two strong jolts as he drove through the area.

The Netherlands closed down the main Groningen gas fields in 2023 because of the quakes, which have damaged thousands of homes and created great uncertainty for locals over the years. The last major quake, also measuring 3.4, took place in 2019 but was slightly less violent than that of Friday morning.

The Dutch state earned €360 billion from gas extraction since the Slochteren field was opened in 1963, with another €66 billion split between energy giants Shell and ExxonMobil, which own NAM.

But the cost to the community has been high: more than 1,600 earthquakes have hit the region since the 1980s, damaging 85,000 buildings. The turning point was a quake measuring 3.6 on the Richter scale in the village of Huizinge in 2012.

A parliamentary commission said in 2023 that the interests of the people of Groningen were systematically ignored by both the government and oil companies, and that making money remained the dominant concern when natural gas extraction started causing earthquakes.

Thousands of people and businesses are still waiting for compensation for damage to property and their mental health.