Lebanese depositors hold up two banks and take hostages to withdraw savings – The National

Lebanese depositors hold up two banks and take hostages to withdraw savings – The National

Two different groups of angry depositors held up two different banks in Lebanon on Wednesday demanding access to their savings in the latest act of civil disobedience over frozen accounts.

A woman who led a group that took hostages and held up a bank in Beirut's Sodeco area left with $13,000 of her savings that she said was to pay for cancer treatment for her ill sister. Hours later, an armed man in Aley, a town south-east of Beirut, held up a bank and withdrew $30,000 of his savings.

The two unconnected incidents within hours of each other are just the latest in a series of hostage situations in Lebanese banks that began in January as people demand access to their savings trapped in Lebanese banks that have placed strict withdrawal limits on depositors.