The village of Beek is temporarily closing its border with Germany because of the chaos caused by drivers nipping into the neighbouring country to buy cheap petrol or to avoid German border controls.

Beek has been a thoroughfare for Dutch traffic heading to Elten in Germany for years. Cheap petrol and shopping are the main attractions but since Germany has reinstated border controls, more people are using Beek as a shortcut to get to the motorway without delay.

The Ascension holiday weekend made things worse, locals told the AD. “The whole village was at a standstill. We couldn’t get in or out, and even our driveway was blocked. It was extreme,” one local told the paper.

Montferland local council, which includes Beek, has now decided to close down the Eltenseweg and the Zuider Markweg border crossings at busy times to all but the emergency services and farm vehicles.

“It’s a big decision, we know,” official Jeanette Derksen said. “But people were stuck for half an hour in the village. Tempers flared and we don’t want that,” she said.

“We asked the German authorities to move the controls a bit further up on the motorway but they wouldn’t. It would be better if they were stopped altogether,” Derksen said.