Rats dines on $25,000 meal in ATM

A HUNGRY rat has eaten more than $25,000 in cold, hard cash after sneaking into an ATM.

IT WAS a cash machine heist with a difference: The attackers were hungry rodents.

At least one rat slipped through a hole in the back of an ATM in northeastern India and started eating. By the time it was finished, police say more than $A25,595 in bills were shredded.

Indian currency notes in 2000 and 500 rupee denominations are shredded after being eaten by rats in at ATM. Picture: AFP

When technicians arrived on 11 June to fix a broken State Bank of India cash machine in the town of Tinsukia they found a dead rat inside it and Indian currency notes worth nearly 1.3 million rupees, or a little over $25,000, chewed to shreds.

The rat had entered the ATM through a small hole for cables, police superintendent Mugdha Jyoti Mahanta said. The notes were in 500-rupee and 2,000-rupee denominations.

The ATM had been broken since May 20, officials said.

Indian police said rats nibbled through more than a million rupees of banknotes after busting into a cash machine in the country's northeast. Picture: AFP

A State Bank of India official said the cash machine was overseen by another company.

“We are surprised at what has happened. An investigation has been ordered,” said the official, Bimal Debroy.