Armed man demanding savings holds Beirut bank staff hostage

Armed man demanding savings holds Beirut bank staff hostage

BEIRUT: A Lebanese man armed with a shotgun broke into a Beirut bank on Thursday, holding employees hostage and threatening to set himself ablaze with gasoline unless he receives his trapped savings, a security official said. The man, identified as 42 year-old Bassam Al Sheikh Hussein, allegedly entered a branch of the Federal Bank in Beirut’s bustling Hamra district carrying a canister of gasoline and held six or seven bank employees hostage, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations. However, George Al Haj, the head of the Bank Employees Syndicate, told local media that there are some seven or eight bank employees held hostage, as well as two customers. The man entered the Federal Bank of Lebanon branch in the Hamra neighbourhood in west Beirut just before noon on Thursday with a firearm, the security source told Reuters. "He demanded access to around $200,000 he had in his bank account and when the employee refused the request, he began screaming that his relatives were in the hospital. Then he pulled out the gun," the security source said. Some customers in the bank managed to flee before he shut the doors on the rest, said