A 48-year-old Dutch man who entered Belarus illegally by bike has been arrested, fined and given a five year ban, the AD reported on Wednesday.

The arrest took place on Sunday but was only now made public, the paper said.

Border guards had been tipped off by the Lithuanian police who saw the man making his way to Belarus on a bike.

The Belarus police report said nothing more about the man, who managed to hide in the woods in the Astrvyets district but was quickly found and arrested.

He told police he had wanted to start a new life in Belarus or Russia but had no means of entering the country legally. Cycling there from neighbouring Lithuania had seemed the best plan at the time, he said.

The man has been banned from entering Belarus for the next five years.