A west Suffolk town's Nationwide is set to reopen eight weeks after it was forced to close following a ram raid in which its cash machine was stolen. 

The building society branch in Newmarket has been shut since Monday, December 4. 

Officers were called to the incident in High Street at about 4.50am and on arrival police found the ATM had been stolen from the branch.

A police cordon was put in place while investigations were carried out. 

A JCB telehandler was used to smash into the wall of the building society and remove the cash machine, parts of which were later loaded into a Luton van. 

The van then made off in convoy with a white Mercedes A Class towards Cambridgeshire, with the JCB left behind in High Street.

Speaking at the time, a spokesman for Nationwide said the branch would be closed for the "foreseeable future" as a result of the ram raid. 

However, the branch is now expected to reopen on Wednesday, January 31, Nationwide has confirmed.

Mandy Beech, director of retail services at Nationwide, said: “We’re glad to see these branches reopening so soon after they were damaged.

"Our facilities teams and local contractors are working flat out to restore these branches and our teams are keen to get back in to start serving our customers once again.”

“Nationwide is still committed to the high street, and wherever we have a branch, we will still be there until at least 2026.”

A spokesman for Suffolk police said officers believe four suspects were involved and were all dressed in dark-coloured clothing and were wearing balaclavas. 

Anyone with information is being asked to contact West CID at Bury St Edmunds police station, quoting crime reference number reference 69861/23.