There has been a slight drop in the number of gun licences approved by the police since the Alphen aan den Rijn supermarket shooting three years ago, website nu.nl reports.

In 2011, 17,983 licences were approved but last year this was down by almost 2,000, the website says.

The number of new licences has fallen since 2007, when almost 21,000 new gun licences were approved. Last year, the total was just under 17,000. Police have not investigated the reason for the decline, nu.nl says.

Self-defence

Just 19 of the registered guns in the Netherlands are licenced for self-defence, down from 54 in 2007. The total number of registered weapons in the Netherlands is 212,445.

The gun licencing process was revised in the wake of the supermarket shooting in which Tristan van der Vlis shot dead six people and then turned his gun on himself. His gun licence had been approved despite his known psychiatric problems.

Applicants are now screened for criminal records, aggressive behaviour and radicalisation, nu.nl says.

The Wadden Sea island of Ameland has the highest concentration of weapons in the country – 30 per 10,000. The island has a strong hunting tradition, an island councillor told the website.