An armed man in Lebanon who took bank staff hostage in a desperate attempt to access his own money has given himself up after seven hours.
Authorities said the 42-year-old entered the bank branch in Beirut with a shotgun and a canister of petrol, fired three warning shots and locked himself in with six hostages, threatening to set himself on fire unless he was allowed to take out his money.
The man was trying to withdraw money to pay for his father’s hospital treatment. He has about £175,000 in savings, according to reports.
After several hours of negotiations, he accepted an offer from the bank to receive part of his savings, local media reported.
He then released his hostages, and was arrested by police as he walked out of the bank. He did not receive any of the money, said witnesses.
His wife, who was standing outside the bank during the siege, told reporters that her husband “did what he had to do”.
Since Lebanon’s economy started to implode in 2019, many banks have introduced monthly limits, which severely restrict cash withdrawals.
The hostage situation started just before midday in a Federal Bank of Lebanon branch in the capital’s Hamra neighbourhood.
The branch manager, Hassan Halawi, told Reuters that he and five others were taken hostage. One was a client and the rest were bank employees.
Mobile footage shot from outside the building shows a bearded man, who is wearing a black T-shirt, shorts and sandals, carrying a gun and demanding access to his money.
Protesters gathered outside the bank branch and started to shout anti-government and anti-capitalist slogans. “Down with the rule of the banks!” they said.
Their chants express the rage felt by the Lebanese people, three-quarters of whom were plunged into poverty by the economic crisis.
Speaking about the hostage situation, Dina Abou Zor, one of the protesters, said: “What led us to this situation is the state’s failure to resolve this economic crisis and the banks’ and Central Bank’s actions, where people can only retrieve some of their own money as if it’s a weekly allowance.”
“This has led to people taking matters into their own hands.”
