Police are hunting for surreptitious diggers in Manchester, England, who had tunnelled most of the way to an ATM machine before their timber lagged, scaffold-propped excavation was discovered. The moles’ hand-dug tunnel, just over 12m long and under 2m high, ran from a railway embankment towards a retail outlet fitted with a cash machine in Fallowfield shopping precinct. The gang worked with lights, spades, a wheelbarrow and a suspended tubing ventilation system.

The camouflaged and cover tunnel entrance was discovered by workers on the rail embankment when, reportedly, a digger damaged the hidden structure. The tunnel has been backfilled with concrete, police said.