In total, 1,745 matches were found when crime scene DNA held in data banks in the two countries was compared. In 576 cases, DNA found at a crime scene in one country could be linked to someone who had been forced to give a sample in the other.

‘We do not know the person whose DNA was found at the site is the perpetrator, but it does give detectives new routes to follow and possible suspects,’ Jan De Kinder of the Belgian national criminology institute is quoted as saying by Het Laaste Nieuws.

Belgium will also soon make DNA exchanges with German and French DNA banks.

Since 2005, everyone convicted of a crime punishable by four years or more in jail in the Netherlands must give a dna sample. This is kept on the data base for 20 years.

According to BNR radio, the Netherlands has been making DNA exchanges with Germany, France, Luxemburg, Spain and Austria since 2008. Belgium has just come on board, hence the large number of positive results.

The DNA checks take place on a daily basis and proceed automatically, BNR said.