In total, 121 people were murdered in the Netherlands last year, four down on 2019 and in line with the general trend of the past few years, according to calculations by national statistics office CBS.

The murder rate fell across all age groups, apart from in the under-20s, where the number of killings rose from 10 to 18. Children are most likely to be murdered by a parent.

The murder rate in the Netherlands has been falling since the beginning of the century. Between 2000 and 2004 the murder rate averaged 236 cases a year.

A quarter of the 2020 murders took place in the big cities of Amsterdam (12), Rotterdam (10) and The Hague (seven), the CBS said.

Women accounted for 44 of the victims and were most likely to be killed by a partner or ex partner. Many of them were killed in their own home, the CBS said.

Of the 2020 total, 14 cases involved people who did not live in the Netherlands, the CBS said.

At 0.64 murders per 100,000 people, the Dutch murder rate is one of the lowest in Europe. In France, for example, the rate is 1.32 per 100,000 people, in Britain 1.12 and in Belgium 1.69.