The Hague, Jan 20 (IANS): Snowfall, slippery roads and a strike by public transport workers caused massive traffic jams in the Netherlands.

Rijkswaterstaat, the department of the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management responsible for road and infrastructure maintenance, said that at 7.50 a.m. on Thursday, there was almost a 690-km-long traffic jam in the country, reports Xinhua news agency.

During the Covid-19 period, the country's roads were less busy.

The previous record of traffic jam stuffed up 572 km of Dutch roadways in the morning of December 13, 2022.

The hardest hit on Thursday was the country's south.

The provinces of North Brabant and Limburg, and especially the area around the city of Eindhoven, were blanketed by a thin layer of snow, causing a number of truck accidents.

Meanwhile, a strike by staff of regional public transport companies seeking pay increases which will also continue on Friday made the morning busier than usual.