Residents shaken from beds as thieves blow up cashpoint
♦ Thieves caused an explosion that rocked homes for miles around when they blew up a cash machine.
The blast happened at a Co-operative Bank cashpoint outside Matalan in Darlington, at around 1.20am yesterday.
Police had to reassure people that the explosion was not terrorism-related.
Locals reported feeling the blast more than two miles away. Harry Chown, 28, said he was woken by a “violent explosion, which shook my house”. Officers think a car sped away from the scene and the thieves got away with an unspecified amount of cash. It was possible that one of the raiders may have been injured, they said.