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for witnesses who may have seen the forklift truck.

DC Dominic Waites from Tavistock police station, said he was unable to say how much money was taken.

He said: 'It will come down to the bank to check their computer system, which will be difficult because part of it was dragged down the street.

'The truck used was only able to do between 25mph and 40mph and we are particularly interested in any witnesses who may have seen this vehicle while it was being moved from Bideford to Hatherleigh.

'Someone might have seen it parked somewhere and not thought much about it.'

The stolen truck was bright red with the word Manitou written in red and white on the back and on other parts of the truck.

DC Waites added: 'There's not a lot of space between Bideford and Hatherleigh and it will help support the investigation if someone was to have seen something.

'We have two main suspects, but we believe there were three men involved and one or more would have been wearing reflective clothing.

'We can't say where they have come from, but my suspicion is that people don't normally do this on their own doorstep.

'It is likely they would have been down to at least have a look at the bank, so I would urge anyone who may have seen suspicious behaviour in the past week or two to let us know.

'It would have to be behaviour that really made them think something was not right, not just someone standing outside the bank looking at their watch.

'This is an unusual thing to happen and is not a common occurance, so people do not need to worry.'

Media relations manager for NatWest, Suzanne Turnbull, said: 'The key thing is the safety of our customers and staff and we need to check that structurally the building is safe for them.

'We realise this is a real inconvenience for customers and we apologise, but it's due to circumstances that were out of our control.

'We obviously want things to get back to normal as quickly as they can and appreciate our customers' patience.

Mayor of Hatherleigh Malcolm Jacobs said: 'It was a great shock to hear about this.

'I get up early to walk my dog and so I saw the aftermath at 6am.

'It's a great sadness and I hope it doesn't endanger the bank.

'It's regrettable that this sort of thing has happened to a place like Hatherleigh, but from what I hear the people who committed the crime are not local and it was a well arranged thing.

'It would seem that it was because Hatherleigh is a quiet market town and the cash machine was well loaded, and it also served such a large geographical area.

Anyone who may have information about the raid can phone the police on 08452 777 444 and quote incident log 350 of Saturday, February 20.

Information can also be given anonymously to Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.