Siliguri, Nov 7 (PTI) Fire broke out at an ATM in northern West Bengal's Siliguri city in the early hours of Tuesday when robbers were trying to break open the machine with a gas-cutter, police said.

The incident happened in Shib Mandir in Matigara police station area of the city around 2.30 am, they said.

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A gang of robbers entered the ATM of a nationalised bank, downed the shutter and with a gas-cutter, they began breaking open the machine, police said.

Soon, the machine caught fire and amid this, a police patrol van that was on the rounds in the area arrived. Scuffle broke out between the robbers and the on-duty police personnel, even as the ATM was up in flames. The robbers, however, managed to escape.

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Fire services personnel brought the blaze under control a while later, but the ATM was gutted, police said.

The amount of cash in the ATM was being assessed, they said, adding that an investigation was underway.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)