Hundreds of people cashed in after an ATM machine began paying out double - and a bank said they can keep the unexpected windfall.

Some customers walked away thousands of pounds better off after news of the cash bonanza rapidly spread.

Long queues quickly formed as residents in the affluent village of Milford-on-Sea, near Lymington, Hampshire, rushed to take money out.

After around 200 residents withdrew money over a two-hour period, police arrived at the ATM to close it off.

Police even took to Twitter to inform people the cash glitch was over.

They tweeted: 'If you get a call that the ATM at HSBC in Milford-on-Sea is dishing out too much money - we are there already - Sorry folks!

'If you have knowingly received too much money from an ATM, the banks will chase you as this may be classed as fraud.'

But HSBC said they would not be asking any customers to return the money as the mistake was theirs.

A spokesman for the bank said it was not the customers' fault.

He said: 'The machine was mis-dispensing and we won't be requesting the funds back. It is certainly not the liability of the customers.'

Meanwhile, one villager, who asked not to be named, said: 'Some people used five or six bank cards and got ￡300 free with each card.

'At first it was all very jovial but it got a bit aggressive at one point when people started pushing in the queue.'

James Jewell-Hazelton, 26, who was working next door in an off license at the time, said: 'It was hilarious - more and more people just kept arriving.

'I would say it was mostly middle-aged people but a few kids arrived on their bikes with what I presume were their parents' bank cards. But when the police arrived the crowd of people went off merrily down the road - I'm sure the pubs in the village did very well that night.'

(Read by Emily Cheng. Emily Cheng is a journalist at the China Daily Website.)

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(Agencies)