A Dutch coal-fired power station has been closed down permanently following a string of accidents, the Volkskrant reports on Wednesday.

The Borssele power plant was due to shut at the end of the year along with four other coal-fired power stations which no longer meet environmental standards.

However, an accident last week in which a 52-year-old man died has triggered an earlier closure, the Volkskrant says.

There have been three serious accidents at the Borssele plant in the past five months and this has had such an impact on the staff that director Carlo Wolters decided to bring forward the closure, the paper says.

‘I do not think it sensible to continue production until the end of the year,’ Wolters is quoted as saying by local newspaper PZC.

Earlier this week a group of 64 professors wrote an open letter urging the government to close all the country’s coal-fired power stations by 2020.

Although a narrow majority of MPs back total closure, prime minister Mark Rutte has said he is opposed because the Netherlands would have to import energy from more polluting sources.

Borssele in Zeeland is also home to the Netherlands only nuclear power plant.