Dutch police have taken a computer server offline which was being used to send ransomware to thousands of people, mainly in the Netherlands and Belgium.

Ransomware blocks people from accessing their computer until they have paid a sum of money.

In total, 236 victims had paid over €70,000 to win back access to their computers after they had been taken over, police said in their report.

The police high tech crime team identified the details of nearly 5,800 people on the server. They have not released any further details about where the criminals behind the software were based and no-one has been arrested.

In July, Dutch police together with Europol and internet security companies launched a website to help victims of ransomware unblock their computers.

The portal No more ransom has been visited almost 300,000 times and several hundred people have downloaded the site’s tools to help ‘free’ their computers from ransomware.