Rats in Assam, India, have been fingered for eating banknotes in an ATM machine worth about 1.2m rupees, approximately N17 million.

Technician were said to have seen the shredded banknotes and destroyed money when they arrived to fix the malfunctioning machine.



They were forced to take shots of the shredded bank papers at the State Bank of India branch in Tinsukia district.

The photos have since gone viral on Twitter with several people speculating that rats were responsible for the damages.

In one of the photos posted online, a dead rat was spotted in on the shredded cash. Hindustan Times reported that Police said the rodent may have gained access into machine through a hole for wiring .

The report added that according to Prakash Sonowal, a police official, the machine was not in use for about 12 days.

Officials said that technicians who took the unit apart found banknotes of 2000 and 500 rupee denominations destroyed but they managed to salvage about 1.7m rupees.