MEN armed with crowbars smashed their way into a Co-Op store in Dudley but fled empty-handed after trying in vain to prize open a cash machine.

The Sedgley Road store was targeted at around 11.30pm last night (Tuesday November 6).

It is believed the offenders struck again just before midnight at a jewellers in Hockley Street, Hockley, and used a blow torch to cut through security shutters.

A Land Rover believed to have been used in both incidents was also used again later that night to ram raid a money exchange shop in Kings Heath.

Believed to have been stolen in a burglary in the West Midlands, the vehicle was later found abandoned in Small Heath.

Three men aged 26, 28 and 29, were this morning in police custody being questioned on suspicion of burglary.