Police car accident after ATM was blown up

Created: 12/31/2021, 12:24 PM

A police car is behind a police tape.

© Robert Michael / dpa-Zentralbild / dpa / Symbolbild

Criminals keep attacking ATMs.

But what happens this time afterwards in Mainz at night is unusual.

Mainz - After an ATM in Mainz was blown up at night, there was an accident with a police car.

According to the police, unknown persons had blown up the free-standing machine early on Friday morning in the Mombach district near the 643 motorway.

They collected cash and fled in a black car with several hundred horsepower.

Only a few hundred meters away they crashed into a police car that had already arrived.

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Both vehicles came to a standstill 100 meters apart, badly damaged, as announced by the Mainz police headquarters.

Although the police reacted immediately, the perpetrators managed to escape to a densely built-up residential area.

No police officer was injured.

Service pistols were not used, the distance between the officers and the offenders fleeing on foot and the risk in the residential areas were too great, said a police spokesman.

Numerous police officers and a Hessian police helicopter were looking for the ATM crackers, also nationwide.

According to the information, remains of an explosive were found in the highly motorized escape vehicle, which the defuser from the Rhineland-Palatinate State Office of Criminal Investigation laboriously secured and detonated in a controlled manner in a nearby open space. For this, the surrounding houses were evacuated and around 40 residents were looked after for several hours, including in a city bus.

Thanks to evidence from witnesses, traces of the perpetrators and objects had been found, the police headquarters said.

Regarding speculation that the perpetrator's car could have been equipped with the blue light in the grille turned on, similar to a police car, a police spokesman said he could not confirm that - the vehicle was still being forensically examined.

According to the spokesman, it was not yet possible to say anything about the amount of loot and whether the perpetrators could still take money with them on their escape on foot.

dpa