Five Romanian men suspected of stealing iPhones worth €500,000 in a dangerous heist on a moving truck have been arrested by Dutch police.

The men allegedly stole the iPhones in a late-night raid a week ago by driving a modified van so close to the delivery truck that one of the suspects was able to clamber across the van's bonnet and break into the truck while it drove along a Dutch road, police spokesman Ed Kraszewski said.

The suspect then passed boxes of iPhones back to the van through a hole cut in its roof, he said.

Police have long been investigating thefts from trucks but had remained sceptical that such a heist could succeed, Mr Kraszewski said.

"The truck was taking its freight from A to B and did not stop. Even so, (the phones) were gone," he said.

"So it must have happened that way. And now we finally have the evidence, with the van and the loot."

The men were arrested on Saturday at a holiday park in the central Netherlands, where police also recovered iPhones and the van they believe was used in the theft.

The suspects, aged 33 to 43, were to appear on Tuesday before an investigating judge.

Such raids have been reported elsewhere in Europe, almost always targeting high-end smartphones, but there have been no arrests in the other cases, Mr Kraszewski said.

Dutch police plan to send fingerprints of the suspects to European colleagues to check for matches in previous thefts.