Ben Weyts, minister of mobility for the Dutch-speaking region of Flanders, unveiled a plan to invest 300 million euros in cycle lanes until 2019, as part of a wider programme to promote alternative modes of transport.

"We left the bike in racks at the station and locked it," a spokesman for the minister said. "When we got back half an hour later, it was gone."

While Belgium is a country obsessed with cycling as a sport, cars are the main method of commuting to work, leading to some of the worst road congestion in Europe.

The minister had to call his driver to pick him up from the station in Halle, just south of Brussels, the spokesman said, and hoped police would discover the bicycle thief with the help of security camera footage.