The number of armed robberies in the Netherlands has fallen sharply this year, with cyber and drugs crime taking over in popularity, the Telegraaf said on Thursday.

By the end of November there had been 467 robberies, a drop of 30% on the same period in 2022, the paper said. The “spectacular” drop is the biggest in 10 years, the paper said, pointing out that in 2012, there were almost 2,000.

Police spokesman Jos van der Stap said the drop is probably due to the downturn in cash money transactions. “We have seen a shift towards other forms of crime, such as drugs and online criminality,” he said. “There have been 80,000 cases of cyber crime so far this year.”

Nevertheless, armed robberies on petrol stations remain a problem, he said.