Around 10 people were evacuated Thursday from a village in the northwest of the Netherlands as high waters threatened to overwhelm a dyke, local authorities said.

But the dyke at the village of Tolbert near the city of Groningen was expected to hold, Judith de Jong, a spokeswoman for the Dutch department of highways and bridges, told AFP.

"We no longer expect the dyke to give way but it also depends on the wind," she said.

Local authority spokesman Michiel Zijlstera told AFP that eventually 10 people had been evacuated from the village. He had earlier put the number at 100.

But the situation remained "critical," he added, warning that strong winds were predicted late at night.

Gale force winds reaching up to 110 kilometres (about 70 miles) an hour as well as heavy rains are expected along the Dutch coast. About a quarter of the country sits below sea level.

The provinces of Groningen, North Holland and Friesland were under special alert and maritime traffic was badly disrupted at Rotterdam, one of Europe's biggest ports where some 430 million tonnes of goods pass through annually.

"Eleven vessels wanted to leave the port and two wanted to enter but were unable to do so because of the heavy wind," said port spokesman Minco van Heezen.