Three Dutch citizens have been arrested by police investigating a criminal gang that blew up cashpoint machines in Austria.

The suspects, a 32-year-old man from ’s-Hertogenbosch, a 28-year-old man from Amsterdam and a 25-year-old woman from Hoofddorp, were arrested on August 19. A fourth suspect was arrested in Germany.

Hours earlier four more suspects had been arrested as they carried out an attack on an ATM in Hofkirchen im Traunkreis, Upper Austria, after police acted on a tip-off from the Netherlands.

Police tracked their car as it crossed the border from Germany and found explosives when they stopped and searched it as the suspects drove away from the attack at 3am.

Europol and international police forces have been monitoring the suspected gang since last September, when they began tracking a stolen Audi RS6. They said the group was well organised and had contacts with local criminals in Austria.

During house searches in the Netherlands police found mobile phones, replica weapons, ammunition, GPS trackers and €16,000 in cash.

Austrian police said a total of 19 gang members had been caught since it set up a specialist task force to investigate attacks on ATMs in March. So far this year 28 cashpoint explosions have been recorded in the country.

Europol believe between 600 and 1,000 people are implicated in the network, which operates mainly from the Netherlands.

Attacks on cashpoint machines in the Netherlands have fallen dramatically from a peak of 8,811 in 2014. Dutch gangsters are believed to have transferred their operations to Germany and Austria because of improved security and the decline of cash payments in Dutch shops.