Sabotage appears to be behind the major disruption that brought train services to a halt across large parts of the Netherlands on Tuesday morning, rail infrastructure manager ProRail said.
ProRail said it found materials at several locations on the tracks and that they appeared to have been deliberately placed there.
The objects caused so-called section failures in the train protection system. According to ProRail, the system then wrongly indicates that a track is occupied, making it impossible to run a safe and reliable service.
The disruption has stopped rail traffic across large parts of the country's centre and north.
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Dutch Railways operator NS said services around Zwolle had come to a complete standstill. No trains were also running between Utrecht and Gouda, and between Apeldoorn and Deventer.
ProRail warned that the disruption could also cause level crossing barriers to remain closed, which may affect road traffic as well.
