Thugs who wanted to make a quick buck by bombing an ATM went home empty-handed after their attempts to grab what was supposed to be their windfall failed.

Although great damage was done to the ATM, the thugs could not lay their hands on the cash, due to the strength of the safe. Now the thugs will have to face the full might of the law as police are hot on their heels.

Villagers say they were awakened by a banging sound in the early hours of Wednesday morning at Hamakhuvha, near Donald Fraser Hospital.

The ABSA ATM was attached to a public phone container, next to a busy road and a shopping complex.

The owner of the container where the ATM is attached, Mr Nthumeni Ligamela, said he received a call from a security official that his container had been bombed. "I immediately rushed there in the early hours of Wednesday morning and found that what I had been informed was true. Pieces of the once beautiful ATM were scattered all over the ground and there was a smell of a foreign substance around the scene." Ligamela said he found that the thugs were already gone when he arrived at the scene. "I then called the police and told them what had happened."

A villager, who did not want his name to be published, said he also heard the banging sound at about midnight. "The sound was so big that it woke me up immediately. A few minutes after the sound, I heard the sound a vehicle that was travelling at high speed. I thought it was local boys who usually play with their guns and cars at night. I was then surprised when I learnt that the ATM was bombed. If the ATM is not fixed urgently, it will have a negative effect on our lives because we use it on daily basis. Life was simpler because we no longer needed to travel to Thohoyandou to do our bank transactions but it seems as if these thugs want to make our life difficult."

Regional police spokesperson Adv Ailwei Mushavhanamadi confirmed the incident. "We are busy investigating and hope to make some arrests soon. However, we urge community members who might know something about the incident to contact us as a matter of urgency."