A woman raised a toy gun, entering the Beirut Bank branch on Wednesday, to take her trapped savings. A source from the Deposah advocacy group said he took $ 13,000 in cash from his account, reporting Reuters. The banks in Lebanon locked most of the depositors from their savings since the financial crisis occurred three years ago, which made people struggle to pay for their basic needs.
On Wednesday around 11 am, a woman raised a toy gun entering the bank blom in the Beirut’s Sodeco environment and demanded access to funds, a security source told Reuters.
About an hour later, he left with $ 13,000 in cash, said a source from the Depository Protest Group, who advocated Lebanese residents with savings trapped in the bank. He also took around 6 million Lebanese pounds, only worth $ 160 after the collapse of more than 90 percent in the exchange rate since 2019.
The source in the group told Reuters that the group was responsible for the incident.
The woman was identified as Sally Hafez by her mother, who told the local Lebanese television station that Hafez took money from her own account to care for her younger sister who had cancer.
“If we don’t do this, my daughter can die,” his mother told Al-Jadeed.
“All we have is money in this bank. My daughter is forced to take this money – that’s true, it is in his account – to treat his sister,” he said.
The statement in the Bank Blom confirmed that the hostage situation had ended but did not provide details about the amount taken. Security services do not immediately respond to requests for comments about the legal implications of the incident.
This is the second incident in Lebanon in a month. In mid -August, a man appointed another commercial bank to withdraw his own funds to care for his sick father.
After the previous hostage incident in August, the perpetrators accused of being arrested but were then released at no cost after the bank canceled the lawsuit.