Two bank robbers are killed by their own explosives after trying to blow up bank safe

Two gangsters who tried to blast a bank's ATM machine used too much dynamite and not only blew up the bank but also killed themselves at Dinant, southern Belgium.

Police experts believe the men had pumped gas from a canister through the letter-box and then set off the powerful explosives before they could withdraw a safe distance.



There was a shattering explosion at 3.20am which woke up the whole town and most of the building collapsed into a heap of smoking ruins. The bodies of the thieves were found under the wreckage.

Carnage: Robbers were killed while attempting to rob bank in Dinant, Belgium

'They were amateurs who didn't know that any money in an ATM machine is automatically destroyed at the first sign of a robbery," said bank spokesman Stephaan van der Baeten.



Police found the would-be robbers - one of which was bearing Kosovo identification papers - amid rubble of the bank in the town of Dinant, 90 kilometres south-east of Brussels.



They found one of the victims immediately. He died shortly after from head injuries. The second was not found until Saturday afternoon when firemen had cleared much of the rubble.



The local prosecutor's office said large quantities of dynamite were found at the site - 'far' too much for just cracking open the cash dispenser. The entire building would now have to be demolished.

