Thieves blew up a cashpoint and stole and unknown quantity of cash from inside after escaping.

Police say the thieves destroyed the ATM in raid in Southampton on the early hours of Wednesday morning.

They don’t know how much was taken from the machine, outside a convenience store on Station Road in Sholing.

A Hampshire Police spokesman said: ‘We are appealing for witnesses and information after a cashpoint on Station Road was damaged in the early hours.

‘We deployed to the area and found the cash machine had been damaged and the cash contents had been stolen. ‘We know that several members of the public called in and reported hearing an explosion at the time of the incident.

‘We will be at the scene today carrying out inquiries and would ask anyone with information about this incident to contact us.’