Customers in Netherlands lined up in their dozens as they tried to beat a deadline for the closure of the marijuana cafes and stockpile weed supplies for what could be weeks of lockdown.

"For maybe for the next two months we're not able to get some weed so it should be nice to at least have some in the house," Jonathan, a Dutch buyer, said outside The Point coffee shop in The Hague.

The queues built up minutes after the Dutch health and education ministers gave a televised press conference announcing the closure of many businesses, along with all Dutch schools.

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