WEB DESK, August 12(ABC): An armed customer threatening to set himself ablaze held bank workers hostage throughout the day Thursday in Lebanon’s capital, demanding to withdraw his trapped savings to pay hospital fees, security sources and a family member said.
The incident is the latest between local banks and angry depositors unable to access savings that have been frozen in Lebanese banks after the country’s economy collapsed in 2019.
Security forces cordoned off a Federal Bank branch near west Beirut’s commercial centre of Hamra Street where the armed man has been holding staff hostage for several hours.
Local residents said the incident began about 10:30 am (0730 GMT).
He had “a pump-action rifle and flammable material, and threatened employees to give him his savings,” a security source told AFP, requesting anonymity.
Another security source said a man in his forties “poured gasoline all over the bank, and closed the bank’s front door, holding employees hostage”.
He demanded savings worth more than $200,000, the source said.
The man “threatened to set himself on fire and to kill everyone in the branch, pointing his weapon in the bank manager’s face”, said Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA).
He said he stormed the bank because his father “was admitted to hospital some time ago for an operation and could not pay for it”, NNA reported.