Three ministers from the autonomous Greenland of Denmark resigned on Wednesday amid a misconduct scandal surrounding the island's government leader, Prime Minister Aleqa Hammond.

The Industry and Mineral Resources Minister Jens-Erik Kirkegaard and the Education and Culture Minister Nick Nielsen, both from Hammond's social democratic Siumut party, announced their resignations while the prime minister is investigated for allegedly misusing 106,363 kroner of public funds for private use.

Hammond narrowly escaped a vote of no confidence on Tuesday and lawmakers granted her temporary leave.

The liberal Atassut party, without which the government lacks a parliamentary majority, said it would also leave the coalition and called for fresh elections.

The party's health and infrastructure minister, Steen Lynge, announced his resignation earlier on Wednesday.

A report from the Greenlandic parliament's audit committee on Friday said the prime minister had used public fund to pay for airline tickets for herself and hotel costs for her family.

Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark, is the biggest island in the world with around 57,000 inhabitants. Hammond became the leader of Greenland after winning the 2013 general elections. (1 U.S. dollar = 5.75 Danish kroner)

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