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Shoppers were given an early Christmas present when a supermarket cash machine started spitting out free money.

The faulty machine mistakenly dispensed DOUBLE amounts of money to delighted users in Fallowfield, Greater Manchester on Wednesday night.

Tesco bosses said a glitch to machinery at the store - which is located in the centre of the student suburb - caused the problem, the Manchester Evening News reports.

They said the cash machine dispensed twice the requested amount for about an hour on Wednesday night from around 10pm. As a result, anyone who withdrew £10 would receive £20.

It is not known how much money was taken from the machine or how many people used it during the fault... or what, if any, action those who exploited the glitch might face.

Regardless, many Fallowfield residents took to Twitter to tell others about the ‘free cash’.

Several reported long queues of people waiting to use the machine at the Wilmslow Road store.

Joe Simms tweeted: “Absolute scenes in fallowfield, tesco cash machine is giving out free cash.”

While Charlotte O’Hare wrote: “No wonder the Fallowfield tesco cash machine queue was so long last night.”

But some were not so lucky.

Eve Marley tweeted: “Why am I missing out on tesco fallowfield cash point Giving out free money”

Tesco Bank are currently assessing losses and correcting the issue.

Spokesman Mark Thomas said the machine no longer has any cash in it.

He added: “We’re putting right the error made by the cash machine and will have it up and running normally again as soon as possible.”