Editor's note: This story contains a correction.

Updated at 1:41 a.m. ET: MAINZ, Germany -- Robbers attempted to blow up an ATM to get the cash inside early Monday -- but ended up destroying the whole bank.

They apparently used more explosives than necessary, reducing the building in the small German town of Darup to rubble and waking some local residents.

German police told NBC News Tuesday that they suspect the incident was part of a nationwide series of robberies in which the thieves put an explosive gas mixture into ATMs and ignite it.

According to a police report, the robbers were able to get a low four-figure sum of cash out of the destroyed ATM. The robbers remained on the run Tuesday.

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The building in which the bank branch is located also holds four apartments, which are now uninhabitable. No one was hurt.

Other recent robberies in Germany have seen cars being driven into jeweler's shop windows and bank break-ins where thieves tied ropes around ATMs to pull them out of the building with a vehicle.

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