Wave of Lebanon bank ‘heists’ to seize back frozen savings

Wave of Lebanon bank ‘heists’ to seize back frozen savings

A man held up a Lebanese bank to withdraw his frozen savings Friday, the latest in a string of "depositor heists" in the crisis-hit country that have garnered wide public support.

Lebanon has been mired in an economic crisis for more than two years, since the value of its currency began plummeting and banks started imposing draconian restrictions on withdrawals.

The holdup of a Beirut bank on Wednesday by an activist who filmed herself using a toy gun appears to have sparked a series of copycat raids by people fed up at being unable to withdraw their savings.

There were another three such incidents in the country on Friday.

In one of them, a man carrying a gun and jerrycan of fuel demanded staff at a branch of the Byblos bank in the southern town of Ghaziyeh hand over his deposit.

Accompanied by his son, the man in his 50s threatened bank staff with the gun, which a Lebanese television channel said may have been a toy, before making his demand.

"He emptied a jerrycan of fuel on the floor," a bank security guard told an AFP correspondent.

The man walked away with about $19,000 in cash but turned himself in to police moments later as a