Robbers blew up an ATM in a florist in the Evans Road shopping centre at Telopea.

Retailers are living in fear of the next bamraid blitz on their ATMs, amid warnings from experts that there is little they can do to prevent the explosive attacks.As the spate of audacious robberies continued with another two explosions early yesterday, shopkeepers are petrified they could be the next targets. Veterinarian Sam Haynes, of the Sydney Animal Hospital in Erskineville, said he feared the consequences of an attack."Absolutely it's a big concern," "I'm pretty worried about it if it was to go off, not just the damage it would do to the building but also it's a veterinary hospital. It's got animals in it."Dr Haynes said his business had already been hit by crime. "We've had an armed hold-up," he said."They came in at night, they held a gun to one of the girls who works here."Retail security exper Mike Ramsay said that while there were some measures one could take against conventional ramraids, it was almost impossible to defend against explosives.
"Explosives is a pretty hard thing to deal with," he said.Mr Ramsay recommended enhanced CCTV monitoring so that offenders could possibly be identified.The stark warning came as police continued their search for a group of bandits blitzing the city.At 2.30am yesterday, robbers blew up an ATM in a florist in the Evans Road shopping centre at Telopea. The ATM in the shopfront and several neighbouring stores were damaged. Police said a sum of cash was taken. Witnesses told police a group of men escaped in a dark-coloured vehicle.Earlier, police were called to a shopping centre in West Pennant Hills about 2am after reports of an explosion.The stand-alone ATM was found largely intact and no cash appeared to have been taken, but a stairwell was damaged. It brings the number of ATM attacks in Sydney to six since Tuesday.Criminals pump gas into ATM money slots before detonating the machines from a distance.The Government has offered a $100,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of ATM bandits, in addition to $50,000 that banks put up in 2006.A furious Premier Nathan Rees said on Thursday he hoped the thieves would blow themselves up before they hurt someone else.