Dutch car importer Pon has told its dealers to stop selling Volkswagen diesel cars which may be involved in the manipulation of emissions tests scandal.

The decision was announced on Monday evening during a meeting organised by Pon with its dealers, news agency ANP reports.

It affects 4,100 cars fitted with a Euro 5 diesel engine which are currently in stock. These will not be offered for sale until there is ‘complete clarity’ from the manufacturer about the problems with the engines, Pon told the dealers.

Pon told ANP that now it is clear which diesel engines are involved in the emissions manipulation, they were able to make the decision to take these cars off the market.

In doing so, the Netherlands is following the example of Switzerland, Italy and Belgium importers, which stopped the sale of Euro 5 engines at the end of last week.

Volkswagen acknowledged earlier last week that it had installed software in diesel engines designed to hide their true emissions of toxic gasses.