The emergency services were called out to deal with 4,753 car fires last year, down 13% on 2020, according to statistics collected by website Alarmering.nl.

However, the downturn was not nationwide and there were, for example, 29% more fires in Flevoland province, as well as small increases in Drenthe and Friesland, the AD reported.

The reduction was greatest in Noord-Brabant, where the number of fires fell by 21% to 763.

In terms of towns and cities, most car fires were reported in Amsterdam, even though the total of 259 was down on 2020. The biggest proportional increase was in Assen, where the number of car fires more than doubled to 37.