ATM blast in Graz: Unknown perpetrators leave destruction

ATM blast in Graz: Unknown perpetrators leave destruction

In the night from Wednesday to Thursday, unknown perpetrators in Graz -ggenberg provided a huge bang when they blew two ATMs in the foyer of the BAWAG branch. This marks the 14th act of this kind in Austria this year and the first in Styria, such as The small newspaper reported . Shortly after three in the morning, residents were torn from sleep by the explosion. While one of the three ATMs remained undamaged, the demolition of enormous property damage. The perpetrators allegedly fled on a scooter after alerting the security forces.

Investigations run

The police immediately initiated a large search, but was only able to ensure an escape vehicle near the crime scene. So far there have been few references to the perpetrators; The police suspect that they are three people who were involved in the explosion. Monitoring camera images and secure traces such as DNA or fingerprints could help with identification. What is striking with this wave of ATM is that "five to six different groups" are presumably responsible for the actions, which was confirmed by police spokesman Fritz Grundnig. One of these groups could come from the Netherlands, such as The ORF reported .

As a result of the increasing attacks, banks have tightened their security measures. Raiffeisen Landesbank announced that the money stocks in the machines are reduced. In addition, foyers were blocked after the end of the company, which may have customers facing empty machines. The Styrian Sparkasse emphasized that you work intensively with security experts and the police to continuously optimize the security concept. It remains to be seen which measures are taken to prevent future offenses, while the security situation in the region is currently at a critical level.