BEIRUT: A Lebanese man took 10 employees and customers hostage with a shotgun at a Beirut bank on Thursday and threatened to set himself on fire with gasoline unless he needed some of his money to pay for his father’s medical bills. Stranded savings were not allowed to be withdrawn.
Soldiers and police gathered in the area and demanded talks to end the standoff.
The hostage drama in Beirut’s bustling Hamra district was the latest painful episode in Lebanon’s economic free fall, which is now in its third year. Lebanon’s cash-strapped banks have imposed strict limits on the withdrawal of foreign currency assets since 2019, effectively trapping many people’s savings.
The gunman has been identified as 42-year-old Bassam al-Sheikh. hussainentered a branch of federal bank Carrying a canister of gasoline, said a security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations. The officer said the man fired three warning shots.
George al-Hajj, head of the Bank Employees Syndicate, told local media that seven or eight bank employees were taken hostage along with two customers. The gunman released a hostage, who was taken away by ambulance.
A bank customer who fled the building told local media that the gunman was demanding $2,000 to pay the medical bills of his hospitalized father. Local media reported that he had about $200,000 stuck in the bank.
Hussain’s brother Ataf stood outside the bank. told The Associated Press That his brother would be willing to turn himself in if the bank gave him money to help with his father’s medical bills and family expenses.
“My brother is not a crook. He is a decent man,” said Atef al-Sheikh Hussein. “He takes whatever he has out of his pocket to give to others.”
Lebanese army personnel, country’s police officers internal security force And intelligence agents surrounded the area.
The cellphone video shows the man with his firearm demanding his money. In another video, outside a closed bank entrance, two police officers asked him to release at least one hostage, but he refused.
Lebanon is facing the worst economic crisis in its modern history. Three-quarters of the population plunged into poverty, and the value of the Lebanese pound against the US dollar has declined by more than 90%.
Dozens of protesters gathered in the area during the standoff, shouting slogans against the Lebanese government and banks, in the hope that the gunman would find his savings. Some viewers hailed him as a hero.
“What has brought us to this situation is the failure of the state to address this economic crisis and the actions of the banks and the central bank, where people can only retrieve some of their own money as if it is a weekly allowance. ,” he said. Dina Abu Zore, a lawyer for the advocacy group Depositors Union, who was among the protesters. “And that has prompted people to take matters into their own hands.”
Abu Zor said that Hussain’s wife told him that the family was very indebted and was struggling to make a living.
Daniya Sharif Said that his sister, who serves coffee and tea at the bank, was among the hostages and was not harmed by the gunman. “They just want their money,” Sharif said standing outside the bank. “I won’t leave until my sister comes out.”
In January, a coffee shop owner took back $50,000 trapped in a Lebanese bank by holding employees hostage and threatening to kill them.
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