Police are hunting thieves who blew up a cash machine and escaped with the contents.

Officers said they do not know how much money was stolen from the ATM, which was destroyed in the raid outside a convenience store in Station Road, Sholing, Southampton, in the early hours of Wednesday.

Cash machine blown up in Southampton
Debris from the cash machine that was blown up outside the Best-One shop in Sholing, Southampton (Andrew Matthews/PA)

A Hampshire Police spokesman said: “We are appealing for witnesses and information after a cashpoint on Station Road was damaged in the early hours.

“We deployed to the area and found the cash machine had been damaged and the cash contents had been stolen.

“We know that several members of the public called in and reported hearing an explosion at the time of the incident.

“We will be at the scene today carrying out inquiries and would ask anyone with information about this incident to contact us.”