The man, armed and threatening to set himself on fire, detains employees of a bank in Beirut to claim his savings of more than 200,000 dollars.
An armed man held employees of a Beirut bank hostage on Thursday to claim his savings of more than 200,000 dollars, the latest violent incident in a country ravaged by the economic crisis, security sources told AFP.
The Federal Bank bank branch near the busy Hamra Street was surrounded by an imposing security cordon at the beginning of the afternoon, noted an AFP journalist. The angry userwalked in with a shotgun and flammable materials and threatened employees to give him his savings“explained one of these sources. Another source clarified that the 40-year-old had “spilled gasoline, closed the bank door and held employees hostage“. According to the Lebanese news agency NNA, the man “threatened to set himself on fire and kill everyone by pointing his pistol at the head of the branch manager“. He said he stormed into the bank because his father “was admitted to hospital some time ago for an operation and could not afford it».
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80% of the population plunged into poverty
His brother Atef al-Sheikh Hussein was at the scene. “My brother has $210,000 in the bank and only wants $5,000 to pay the hospital bills.he told reporters, adding that he would surrender as soon as he got his money. According to him, his brother grabbed a gun.to the bank and had not brought it with him». «It doesn’t matter if he goes to prison, the important thing is that we relieve our distress (financial)“, he added. A video posted online shows two negotiators calling on the assailant – whom they call Bassam – to release two clients.
Brandishing his weapon and a cigarette, he then released a hostage, according to an AFP correspondent on the spot, while dozens of passers-by and relatives of the hostages gathered at the bank. Since 2019, Lebanon has been going through one of the worst socio-economic crises in the history of the world since 1850, according to the World Bank. The national currency has lost more than 90% of its value and about 80% of the population has plunged into poverty, in particular due to the draconian banking restrictions which prevent them from having free access to their money. Regularly, violent incidents break out between bank employees and exasperated savers.