Chennai: Unidentified men cut open an ICICI bank ATM using a welding machine and escaped with ₹10 lakh at Pudupedu near Somangalam in the early hours of Tuesday. The burglars sprayed a chemical substance on the CCTV camera inside the kiosk in an attempt to conceal their identities, police said. They also disabled the alarm. It is suspected to be the handiwork of a professional gang, given the precautions they had taken to break open the ATM kiosk.The ATM kiosk is located on the Sriperumbudur-Kundrathur Road, where no security guard was present.Police said the burglars entered the ATM around 2.45am and used a welding machine to cut open the portion containing the cash cassette. They removed the cash and fled in a vehicle. As soon as the gang began tampering with the machine, an alert was triggered at the bank’s central control room in Mumbai. The control room alerted Tamil Nadu police about a burglary attempt at an ATM near Somangalam in Kancheepuram district.However, police personnel on night duty could not immediately locate the ATM as they did not receive its precise location, police sources said. They checked several ATMs in the area before reaching the Pudupedu kiosk. By then, the burglars had escaped with the cash.Senior police officers and bank officials reached the spot and conducted an inspection. Police said cash had been replenished at the ATM on Monday evening. The exact amount stolen is being verified by the bank, though preliminary estimates indicate that it could exceed ₹10 lakh.Police found that the burglars had sprayed a chemical substance on the CCTV camera to prevent their faces from being clearly recorded. Police are retrieving available footage from the surveillance system and cameras installed along nearby roads to identify the suspects.Preliminary footage from the ATM reportedly shows one man, with his face covered by a shawl, entering the kiosk and carrying out the burglary. Police are probing whether accomplices waited outside and kept watch or whether he acted alone.
