A gang of masked robbers smashed a car into a Co-op store in a dramatic ram-raid before making off with the cash machine.
The brazen criminals drove a dark Volkswagen Touareg straight into the front of the convenience store in Christchurch, Dorset, in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Witnesses reported seeing the group using an array of tools to rip the ATM from the wall and haul it into the back of the vehicle.
A second vehicle, a blue Audi RS3, was also spotted speeding away from the scene shortly after the raid, which took place at around 2:30am.
Police were called and arrived within minutes, cordoning off the area at 2:43am as a full investigation was launched.
A spokesperson from Dorset police confirmed: ‘A full investigation has been launched to determine the full circumstances of the incident.’
The Co-op store has since re-opened, but staff and residents have been left shaken by the ordeal.
A spokesperson for the Co-op said: ‘There was an incident in the early hours of yesterday morning where there was an attack on the community’s ATM.
‘We appeal for anyone who may have seen or heard anything to come forward to Police, who are investigating.
‘We would like to thank the Police for the speed of their response. The store is now reopen to serve the community.’
No arrests have yet been made, and police are urging anyone with information or dashcam footage from the area to come forward.
It comes after two masked robbers were captured on CCTV as they ripped out a shop till while threatening a shopkeeper with a metal wrench.
The terrified member of staff was standing behind the counter of the shop in Newport, South Wales, when it was raided by the masked suspects in December.
Footage from security cameras shows one robber repeatedly slamming the large metal tool on the shop counter before ripping out the till.
And earlier this month, two masked teenagers who robbed a great-grandmother in her own home before leaving her alone for hours as she lay injured on the floor and crying out for ‘mummy’, were locked up for two years in a youth detention centre.
Joy Middleditch, 82, died just days after she was discovered seriously injured inside her bungalow in Pakefield, Suffolk, by her family, having been left on the floor for 12 hours after she was burgled and robbed.
She was conscious and breathing, but found to have five broken ribs and bruising before dying in James Paget Hospital, Great Yarmouth on March 27, 2023.