ATM Explosive Attack

An ATM explosive attack is the destruction of an automated teller machine with explosives in order to reach and steal the cash held inside it. The method originated in the Netherlands, where it became common enough that the national ATM network shrank from about 20,000 machines to roughly 5,000 by 2015 as banks withdrew exposed machines, and it later spread heavily into Germany, whose cash-dependent economy remains a leading target; German banks have invested more than 300 million euros in additional ATM security in response, and the country's Federal Criminal Police Office has tracked gangs, some relocated from the Netherlands, carrying out the attacks mostly at night and in the early morning hours. The method is not always successful: Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office put the nationwide success rate at about 60 percent of attempts as of 2024, and about 40 percent of detonations in 2020 used actual explosives rather than gas.