Armed woman breaks into Beirut bank, takes trapped savings

Armed woman breaks into Beirut bank, takes trapped savings

BEIRUT: An armed Lebanese woman held up a Beirut bank on Wednesday and reportedly walked out with thousands of dollars to fund what she said was hospital treatment for her ill sister. It was just the latest in a string of heists as Lebanese depositors, whose savings have been devalued and trapped in banks for almost three years, take matters into their own hands. Sali Hafiz streamed a live video of her raid, in which she could be heard yelling at employees to release a sum of money while entrances to the bank were sealed. "I am Sali Hafiz, I came today... to take the deposits of my sister who is dying in the hospital," she said in the video. "I did not come to kill anyone or to start a fire... I came to claim my rights." The woman instantly turned into a folk hero on social media in Lebanon, where many are desperate to access their savings and furious at a banking sector perceived as a corrupt cartel. A second woman who appeared in the video claimed they had secured more than $13,000, while a man standing beside her carried what appeared to be stacks of banknotes wrapped