There was a 10% rise in the number of euthanasia cases in the Netherlands last year, taking the total to 5,306, according to the regional euthanasia monitoring board.

The number of cases has risen by around 10% a year for some time. As in previous years, in almost three in four cases, the patient had terminal cancer.

A spokesman for the monitoring board told the paper the increase in euthanasia cases may be related to growing social acceptance of euthanasia.

However, there is likely to be a sharp rise this year in the number of people being helped to die because they had severe psychiatric problems, the NRC says in its report.

There were 41 such cases last year, but there are indications this could double in 2015, the NRC says, referring to figures from a special euthanasia clinic published in July.

In the first six months of this year, 18 people with severe psychiatric problems were helped to die by the clinic, which was set up in 2012 to help people whose doctors are unwilling to grant euthanasia requests. This is more than double the 2014 total of 17.