AN investigation has been launched after a cash machine was damaged outside a petrol station near Wareham.

Dorset Police were called to the Texaco garage, Sandford Road, early Thursday morning.

Yesterday, a police spokesman told the Daily Echo: "We received calls at 5.57am that the cash machine had been tampered with outside the Texaco garage on Sandford Road.

"It is unclear at this time whether anything has been stolen."

No-one has been arrested in connection with this incident.

Staff at the Texaco garage declined to comment, other than to confirm the cash machine had been tampered with and police had been called out.

In August this year a cash machine was stolen from the front of the Co-op store, North Street, Wareham.

On that occasion officers searched the area after a vehicle was reported to have rammed the front of the store.

No arrests have been made in connection with this earlier raid.

Witnesses to either incident should contact Dorset Police on 101.