New Year’s Eve saw 10 million euros-worth of damage caused by vandalism and arson in the Netherlands, according to the Dutch Association of Insurers. Most of the damage was to homes and cars.

The total amount of claimed on insurance for New Year havoc has thus fallen for the third year running. Last year insurers paid out 12 million euros for damage caused during the New Year festivities. The drop is down to the government’s announcement of a zero tolerance policy on vandalism, the insurers’ association says.

Insurance company Centraal Beheer Achmea said earlier it would be paying out 3 million euros for fire damage to schools over New Year. Here too there appears to be a downward trend in the last three years. On the night of 31 December 2007 there were fires at 22 schools around the country.