Around one-third of police officers are physically attacked, threatened or intimidated when they are off duty, tv programme Eenvandaag reported on Monday evening.

The report was based on research carried out by police union ACP which questioned 1,000 police officers.

Of them, 29% said they had faced violence while off duty which was directly attributable to their work, often as a reaction to an arrest. 38% said their work has a negative affect on their home life and 28% said they suffer severe emotional problems.

ACP chairman Gerrit van de Kamp said it is ‘unacceptable’ for people to target individual officers in their private life and that steps must be taken to prevent this.

Reacting to the survey, police chief Gerard Bouman said he was ‘very shocked’ by the results. ‘I want further research into what exactly is behind this behaviour and what measures are necessary to prevent it,’ he said.