Lebanese woman holds up bank at gunpoint to access frozen savings

Lebanese woman holds up bank at gunpoint to access frozen savings

/ Middle East























Issued on: 15/09/2022 - 01:03

















A woman, who was identified as Sally Hafez, is seen carrying what appeared to be a gun at a Blom Bank branch in Beirut, in this screengrab taken from Al Jadeed footage, Lebanon September 14, 2022. © Al Jadeed via Reuters











Two seemingly armed and desperate Lebanese depositors held up banks on Wednesday to force access to their own money, which has been blocked during a national financial meltdown.









One woman with a gun and some associates briefly held hostages at a branch of BLOM Bank BLOM.BY in the capital Beirut, before leaving with more than $13,000 in cash from her account, a source from a depositors' advocacy group said.

Shortly afterwards, in the mountain city of Aley, an armed man entered a Bankmed branch and retrieved some of his trapped savings, before handing himself into authorities, the Depositors Outcry and a security source said.

Lebanon's banks have locked most depositors out of their savings since an economic crisis took hold