'Stupid' vandals have made a mess of central Falmouth and left a bank's cash dispenser out of order following a saucy spree which saw ketchup sprayed around the town.

The group of mindless youngsters, reported locally to be four teenagers armed with a gun-style condiment dispenser, attacked the ATM outside of Natwest on Saturday, smearing it with sauce and putting it out of service for the weekend.

While staff cleaned the machine on Monday morning, with a sign apologising for the inconvenience and recommending customers use alternative facilities inside the branch, it was still not in service by Tuesday afternoon.

Mark Peters photographed the mess and posted it on Facebook, commenting: "Some people living in Falmouth eh?

"Guess it's tomato sauce rather than blood. Must have happened on Saturday night as was like it on Sunday."

It is understood by the Packet that the group continued its campaign of smearing elsewhere in the town, with letter boxes on Prince of Wales Pier also reported to have been targeted.

Richard Gates, Falmouth town manager, said the vandalism was a police matter. He added: "Stupid acts of vandalism such as this are not condoned and are taken very seriously. Let’s hope the individual/s that did this can be identified."

Natwest said the machine was being cleaned on Tuesday and the company was hoping to have it back up and running by Wednesday.

A Natwest spokesperson added: "We hope that the police will be able to 'ketchup' with these criminals sooner rather than later."