Some 13,000 people were treated at hospital accident and emergency departments for injuries sustained while skating earlier this month, according to consumer safety group Consument en Veiligheid.

The organisation says the total is ‘dramatic’. ‘People are tired, inexpert and busy with other things and they fall,’ spokesman Cees Meijer told Nos television.
When skaters are confined to artificial rinks, only 200 or so are injured over a similar period, the organisation says.
Some 8,400 of the injuries involved broken bones – most often a broken wrist. And 9% of the injured skaters had to remain in hospital. The over-40s accounted for over half of all injures, while one in 10 was over 65.
The organisation calculates the cost of 12 days of natural ice to Dutch society to be €46m: €20m for treating injuries and €26m on lost days at work.