Three earthquakes in 13 hours jolt Hawke's Bay

The earthquake was near Hastings, and was 28km deep. Graphic / GeoNet

A 3.9 earthquake has rattled Hawke's Bay on Saturday with two people reporting the light quake as 'extreme'.

The earthquake was at 10.33am, 5 km east of Hastings and was 28km deep, according to GeoNet. It was the third quake west of Hastings in 13 hours.

Within 10 minutes, more than 1200 people had logged the quake on the GeoNet website, with two reckoning it felt extreme.

At 10.45am, most were reporting the quake as light (539) or weak (598).

A second shake happened at 10.53am in the same location and was a 3.5 rattle, 26km deep.

A Napier woman had her Saturday morning crossword interrupted by the jolt and subsequent vibrations of the first earthquake.

"I was racking my brain trying to remember what an extinct elephant was.''

"It gave me a fright and made me look up, flowers on the table were moving and our fridge was rattling.''

Saturday's events were the third earthquakes west of Hastings in just over 12 hours.

On Friday night, a weak 3.3 earthquake was felt 10km west of Hastings at 9.17pm. It was a similar depth to the Saturday morning events,