POLICE are probing attempted theft of an ATM machine at Waitrose in Alton.

The bungled raid occurred in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

Police were called to the Station Road site at 3.50am. The ATM was intact and the site is now secure.

It follows hard on the heels of a spate of ram-raids involving the theft of ATMs across East Hampshire in recent months.

Last August, following a failed raid on the Aldi store in Mill Lane, Alton, thieves removed an ATM from the Hen and Chicken service station on the A31 at Upper Froyle, after using a truck to demolish a wall.

More recently, a JCB was used to try to extract a cash machine from the Gulf garage on the A325 at Bucks Horn Oak, while on March 3, a forklift truck was used to rip an ATM from the wall of Lloyds Bank in Liphook.

Thieves have also targeted ATMs at the Co-op in Rowledge, Lindford Spar, Waitrose in Farnham, and Haslemere railway station.

The cordoned off area around the cash machine outside Waitrose on Station Road is pictured.