Over 500 traffic accidents were reported to the infrastructure ministry’s roads department on Sunday night as freezing rain and black ice spread over the country.

In many cases, vehicles skidded off the road after encountering a patch of ice, but some accidents involved multiple vehicles, the department said.

The KNMI weather bureau had issued a code amber weather warning, and urged motoristst to stay home because of the freezing conditions. Gritting lorries were out in force, spreading some 13 million kilos of salt on 140,000 kilometres of roads.

The temperature rose overnight, ending most of the problems, although motorists in the north and north east were warned to be on their guard on Monday morning.

On a normal Sunday evening, the roads department receives between 10 and 15 accident reports.

The temperatures are set to rise to around eight degrees on Monday and will be a couple of degrees warmer as the week progresses, the KNMI said.

At night too, temperatures will remain well above freezing. It will also be wet and overcast up to and including the holiday weekend.