LUCKNOW, India >> Police say termites have devoured currency notes worth 10 million rupees ($222,000) in a steel bank chest in northern India.

Officer Navneet Rana says the bank manager discovered the damage when he opened the reinforced room in an old bank building on Wednesday.

Rana told The Associated Press on Friday: “It’s a matter of investigation how termites attacked bundles of currency notes stacked in a steel chest.”

Rana said the termites had damaged bank furniture and documents in the past. The money was put in the bank chest in January.

Rana says police have registered a case of negligence by bank officials in Barabanki, a town 20 miles southwest of Lucknow, the Uttar Pradesh state capital. In India, police register a case before opening an investigation.