A record amount of cash could be withdrawn from ATMs this weekend as savers heed ministers' advice to hoard money at home in case calamity strikes.
It follows the launch of Labour's 'Be Ready' campaign, urging every household to stockpile three days' worth of essentials to cope with a crisis caused by either war, cyberattacks or a natural disaster.
Sales of bottled water, loo roll and wind-up radios have soared since the alert was issued, and last week online retailer Ocado temporarily ran out of 40 varieties of tinned soup, including Heinz and Baxters.
Now it seems the public is also taking on board official advice to have notes and coins on hand in case electronic payments or cash machines fail in the event of an emergency.
Figures show £429million was withdrawn from cash machines on Wednesday and Thursday - £46million more than on the same days the previous week.
'What's interesting is that when people are going to ATMs they are withdrawing more,' said Graham Mott, at Link, which connects the national network of over 40,000 cash machines.
The average amount withdrawn last Saturday was £95, up from £90 the previous week, and a record for any Saturday since Link's records began in 2014.
Figures for yesterday and Friday - typically the busiest days of the week for cash withdrawals - are not yet available.
£429 million was withdrawn from ATMs on Wednesday and Thursday, £46 million more than on the same days the previous week.
The Government's new 'Be Ready' emergency preparedness campaign advises households to keep three days' worth of essentials at home in case of a crisis. Pictures show a man with multiple packs of water from Costco
The dash for cash comes after Defence Secretary Wes Streeting said the public needed to think about what they would do if a natural disaster struck, if hackers attacked businesses or terrorists disrupted supply chains.
He later said the public's response was 'encouraging' and revealed he began stockpiling tins, bottles of water and other essentials weeks ago. 'I am trying to lead by example,' he said.
But the Government stands accused of lecturing families on what to keep in their cupboards.
'Britain is not a country on the brink of catastrophe,' Lord Hannah, director general of the Institute of Economic Affairs think-tank, told the Daily Mail. 'The last thing we need is a Government encouraging people to panic,' he added.
A snap poll found 49 per cent felt the Government's advice was 'an insulting waste of time and money' while just a quarter found it 'timely and helpful'.
Cash machine usage has dwindled in recent years.
The volume of ATM transactions fell to 1.3 billion last year, down from 3.2 billion a decade ago.
A recent Link survey found that 61 per cent of people had used an ATM in the past fortnight with the most frequent users in rural areas and among the elderly.
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