The number of attempts made by robbers to blow up cash machines fell last year to 42, the Dutch banking association NVB said on Wednesday.

In 2017 there were 65 explosions at ATMs and the number has been declining since 2013 when the total hit 129, the central bank said.

The decline follows efforts by banks to improve security and to work together with the police and justice ministry officials, the NVB said. In addition, the public prosecution department has increased the minimum jail term from 15 to 24 months.

Banks have also reduced the number of ATMs in the Netherlands towns and villages, removing several hundred in the last two years. ING, ABN Amro and Rabobank are  working on a project to use the same machine, further reducing the opportunities for robbers.

Supermarket groups Jumbo and Coop have also removed all cash point machines from their premises.

Despite the reduction in the number of attempts to blow up ATMs, the gangs are using increasingly powerful explosives and this has increased the risk of buildings collapsing.

Last October, for example, some 30 homes in a low-rise apartment complex in Amsterdam’s district of Nieuw-West were evacuated after a failed attempt to blow up an ATM.