Fire broke out at an ATM in northern West Bengal's Siliguri city in the early hours of Tuesday when robbers were trying to break open the machine with a gas-cutter, police said.

The incident happened in Shib Mandir in Matigara police station area of the city around 2.30 am, they said.

A gang of robbers entered the ATM of a nationalised bank, downed the shutter and with a gas-cutter, they began breaking open the machine, police said.

Soon, the machine caught fire and amid this, a police patrol van that was on the rounds in the area arrived. Scuffle broke out between the robbers and the on-duty police personnel, even as the ATM was up in flames. The robbers, however, managed to escape.

Fire services personnel brought the blaze under control a while later, but the ATM was gutted, police said.

The amount of cash in the ATM was being assessed, they said, adding that an investigation was underway.

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