Would-be thief's plan to blow up ATM knocked him off his feet

A man who blew up a cash machine in the Darwin suburb of Winnellie in Australia's Northern Territory overnight was knocked backwards by the explosion. The man's flip-flops were blown off his feet and he fled barefoot.



The ATM was a tangled mess of electronics and broken metal when police arrived, alerted by an alarm triggered at about 3:45am. Police confirmed the man took no money. The man, who was wearing a t-shirt over his face during the incident, was also wanted over a similar incident on Christmas Eve, police said.


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CCTV shows the man light an explosive and then appear to insert it into the machine. Within seconds the item exploded. He escaped serious injury, police said. Police said the offender may have used "some sort of gas" to destroy the cash machine.



"The machine is completely destroyed. You need a new machine in there," duty superintendent Bob Harrison said. "In relation to sophistication it wasn't something that was done by somebody who had expertise. It looks as though some sort of gas was used to get into the machine."