Market Harborough cash machine ripped from wall in raid

A witness heard a "massive bang" and thought it was a bomb

A supermarket cash machine has been ripped out using a JCB vehicle in the latest of a string of similar raids.

Witnesses described hearing a "massive bang" when the ATM in Market Harborough, Leicestershire, was targeted just after 02:00 BST.

A telehandler was used to ram the machine, on the side of a Spar shop on Coventry Road, where a number of cash containers were stolen, police said.

It is the sixteenth ATM raid in the county in the last 18 months.

Several people dressed in dark clothing and wearing face coverings were seen fleeing from the scene in a white car, police said.

One woman who witnessed the raid told BBC Radio Leicester it was "scary" and she had not been able to sleep since.

"I jumped because I thought it was a bomb," she said.

"I haven't really slept since because I'm so agitated about it."

It is the sixteenth theft targeting Leicestershire cash machines in 18 months

Money was stolen from a cash machine in Countesthorpe in the early hours of Wednesday morning, and from a cash machine in Kibworth on 27 September by using a gas canister to open the machine.

Police have appealed for anyone with information to contact them.