The northern province of Groningen was hit by two more minor earthquakes in the early hours of Thursday morning, according to the KNMI seismology station.

The quakes, which measured 0.9 and 1.1 respectively on the Richter scale and took place at a depth of three kilometres, came in the wake of a much stronger quake on Wednesday.

The number of damage claims following Wednesday’s quake, which hit 3.4 on the Richter scale, has since gone up to over 840.

Thursday’s quakes takes the total number for May up to 14. The quakes are caused by the ground settling following natural gas extraction.

The government decided at the end of last year to phase out the use of Groningen gas by 2030 but officials are still in dispute about compensating people for the damage caused to their property and the cost of shoring up buildings.