Online retail giant Bol.com, which is owned by the Ahold group, has been ordered to stop selling fireworks with immediate effect.

The website had offered 225 different types of fireworks and firecracker for sale, but it is illegal to send them by post, the AD reported.

‘Whether we are talking about sparklers or more powerful fireworks, it is illegal to send them by post,’ a spokesman for the transport ministry inspectorate told the paper.

Police firework expert Ad Nieuwdorp told the paper that the website was also selling fireworks which have been banned in the Netherlands, such as smoke bombs.

Bol.com said in a reaction that fireworks were being offered for sale by its webshop partners. ‘With almost 15 million articles on offer, we don’t always know what our sales partners are adding via their accounts,’ spokeswoman Maarjolein Verkerk said.