Leiden railway station was closed towards the end of Wednesday morning’s rush hour following the discovery of a suspect package.

All trains to and from the station have been cancelled and commuters are advised to travel via Utrecht instead. This will add at least an hour to journeys.

At midday the station was still closed and news agency ANP reported the package – a big bag taped to a concrete pillar on one of the platforms – was being examined by a bomb disposal squad robot.

ANP reports that police have a good description of the person who left the bag in place early on Wednesday morning.

He is said to be a white man aged between 20 and 30 wearing a long coat, jeans and a knitted bobble hat. He arrived in a dark Volvo and was hanging around the station for an hour from 06.30 to 07.30.

Train travel is expected to be disrupted until at least 13.00 hours, Dutch railway company NS said.