‘Hero’ Lebanon bank gunman turns self in

‘Hero’ Lebanon bank gunman turns self in

BEIRUT: Bystanders hailed as a hero an armed customer who held bank staff hostage for hours Thursday in Lebanon because he couldn’t access funds frozen after the country’s economic collapse. The suspect, identified only as Bassam, was armed with a rifle and had doused the interior of the bank with gasoline, security sources said. But after eight hours the standoff ended peacefully. “Bassam you are a hero!” cheering bystanders chanted outside the bank.

The incident was the latest involving local banks and angry depositors unable to access savings that have been locked in Lebanese banks since the country’s economic crisis began in 2019. Official media said the suspect turned himself in when the bank agreed to give him $30,000 out of his more than $200,000 in trapped savings. “Employees taken hostage have also begun to leave the bank,” Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) said.

An AFP correspondent at the scene saw hostages and the suspect being escorted away in police cars from the Federal Bank branch where the drama unfolded, near west Beirut’s commercial center of Hamra Street. Protesters at the scene had chanted “down with the rule of the banks”, while others took to social media to express their support for