Cash machines bled dry in rush for new euro

Belgium's cash machines were running fast out of euro notes within hours of the launch of the single currency at midnight.

Queues formed at thousands of bank outlets as people rushed to be among the first to withdraw the new euro.

People even took photographs of their relatives as they took out the crisp new banknotes - and carefully pocketed the receipts for posterity.

Earlier in the day European single currency commissioner Pedro Solbes had urged consumers not to hoard the new currency because "it is not a collector's item".

Instead the idea was to preserve the record of the withdrawal, complete with the time of the transaction in the first hours of the first day of the historic single currency.

Some couples deliberately made separate withdrawals so as to be able to give "commemorative" tickets to friends and relatives.

Others withdrew far more cash than they needed, hoping that the permutation of notes would include at least one of each of the seven denominations of euro.

Within five minutes of the dawning of the New Year - and the new currency - about 30 people had formed a queue at one cash machine close to European Commission headquarters.

When an English couple's turn came to extract money, Belgians in the line joked that the machine would refuse to pay out until the UK joined the single currency.

The hope is the vast sums of new currency poured into the machines would be enough to cope with the early demand but the real test in Belgium will only come when full business resumes on Wednesday, after the bank holiday shutdown.