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A gunman turned himself in as police on Thursday after a seven-hour standoff after taking 10 people hostage inside a Lebanese bank to use his savings. No one was injured during the ordeal.
Food delivery driver Bassam al-Sheikh Hussein said he needed to withdraw money to pay for his father’s medical bills.
The 42-year-old entered a Federal Bank branch in Beirut on Thursday with a shotgun and a can of gasoline. According to his family, he deposited about $210,000 (€204,000) there.
Inside, Hussein held seven or eight employees, plus two customers, and demanded access to his savings. He also “dumped petrol all over the bank,” a security source told AFP.
Bank withdrawals are restricted
Lebanon is in the midst of a severe economic crisis – the worst in the country’s modern history. Basic commodities are in short supply, while a slump in the local currency has led banks to impose strict limits on withdrawals.
Armed man who took employee hostage at a bank in the Lebanese capital Beirut hailed as a hero pic.twitter.com/1Mru4PzhID
— TRT World Now (@TRTWorldNow) August 12, 2022
Lenders are also preventing customers from moving funds overseas.
“The reason we have this is the failure of the state to address this economic crisis and the actions of the banks and central banks, people are only able to get back some of their money as if it were weekly pocket money,” said the depositor. The coalition’s legal advocacy group represents the gunman and his family.
“This leads people to take matters into their own hands,” he added.
Gunman hails ‘hero’
Outside the bank, Hussein’s supporters gathered to protest the dire economic situation in the country. Some even call him a hero.
BREAKING: Video of the hostage situation #lebanon A big bank in downtown Beirut. An armed man is holding bank staff until they release his deposit, which he says is $210,000: pic.twitter.com/xG9A9H3Yl8
— Joyce Karam (@Joyce_Karam) August 11, 2022
“My brother is not a bad guy. He is a decent guy. He takes his things out of his pocket and gives them to others,” Hussein’s brother Atef said during the confrontation.
Hussein’s wife, Mariam Chehadi, told reporters outside the bank that her husband “did what he had to do”.
After hours of negotiations, Hussein’s lawyer said he agreed to withdraw $35,000 from his savings and turn himself over to police.
“Similar incidents keep happening,” said George al-Hajj, head of the Lebanese bank employees’ union. “We need a radical solution.”
“Depositors want their money and unfortunately their anger flares up in front of bank employees because they can’t reach management,” he added.
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