Five women from Oosterhout in Noord-Brabant have come forward to say that they have been sexually harassed by the town’s mayor, who resigned last week, the AD said on Wednesday.

The allegations were so serious that the mayor, Stefan Huisman, was called back from his holidays and he handed in his resignation to the king’s commissioner that same afternoon, the paper said.

The mayor admitted that he had made a mistake and was stupid, town hall secretary Paul de Ridder told councillors at a meeting on Tuesday evening.

Three of the complaints centred on events at the town hall Christmas drinks party last year and two date back to an earlier occasion, the AD said.

Councillors are pressing for an independent inquiry.