AS POLICE continue to hunt for five men who used a digger to steal an ATM from a village Co-op this morning, the scene of the crime is tonight radically different.

The construction site digger which was stolen, used to demolish a wall at the Kingston Bagpuize shop then dumped, has gone.

Also gone is the pile of rubble from the wall which police this afternoon sifted through for clues.

Watch: Police search rubble for clues

Much of the rubble seems to be in a yellow bag and a skip in the car park at the Witney Road store, which opened in November.

The massive hole in the wall has this afternoon been boarded up, and the police cordon remains in place.

Though the lights are on at the store, it was closed today and the Co-op did not estimate this afternoon when it might re-open.

Police must now continue to hunt for the thieves who were seen at 2am this morning hauling the shop's cash machine onto the back of a a black Mitsubishi pick-up truck which fled the scene towards the A420, with a chain dragging along the road. 

Read again: What we know so far about Co-op cash point raid

They and the rest of us can only guess as to whether this gang were connected to any of the thieves who have carried out more than 15 other cash machine raids in Oxfordshire since late 2017.

Oxford Mail:

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