There were wintry conditions on many Dutch roads on Monday morning and the KNMI weather bureau issued a code yellow weather warning until at least 10am.

Several accidents caused delays and traffic jams and cyclists in particular were having difficulty with the slippery minor roads in Drenthe, local media reported.

The problems in south west are down to snow and hail, in other places wet roads have frozen, the KNMI said. Gritting lorries are out in force and spread 2.5 million kilos of salt on almost 38,000 kilometres of roads overnight.

The low temperatures will continue for much of the day but the sun will shine later on. Overnight it will be windy and Tuesday will again be wet, but slightly warmer than Monday at around 10 Celsius.

There is little change through the week, but it will be chillier again towards the weekend, the KNMI said.