Burglars made an attempt to loot an automated teller machine (ATM) of State Bank of India in Irungattukottai, near Sriperumbudur, in the early hours of Saturday.
According to police, the culprits, who came wearing monkey caps, around 1 a.m. attacked the security guard, Krishnan, a resident of Sirukaveripakkam, and tied him with a rope. They also plastered his mouth with a tape.
The unidentified men then took away the ATM unit and attempted to open it at an isolated place, about 600 metres away from the kiosk, which is located on the Chennai-Bangalore national highway.
While they doing so, they heard the siren sound of an ambulance passing that way. Assuming it to be a police patrol vehicle, they fled from the spot leaving behind the ATM unit. According to police, the watchman, Krishnan said that he managed to free himself and called the security agency, which had engaged his services, and informed them about the incident.
The security agency alerted the police who rushed to the spot and recovered the ATM unit and placed it in the kiosk around 3 a.m. The kiosk remained closed on Saturday to facilitate the investigation process being undertaken up by the Sriperumbudur police.
