BEIRUT (Reuters) – A man armed with a pistol that turned out to be a toy was arrested on Friday morning after he robbed a Lebanese bank in the southern city of Ghazieh in an attempt to recover his stranded savings , a security source told Reuters.
Lebanese banks have frozen the savings of most savers since the economic crisis unleashed three years ago, and this is the third such incident this week.
The freezing of these funds has never been formalized by law and the slowness of the courts to rule on savers’ access to their savings through legal action has led some people to seek other means to recover their money.
The man was able to recover some of his funds on Friday at Byblos Bank in the southern town of Ghazieh before being arrested, the source said, adding that the gun in his possession is thought to be a toy .
Byblos Bank could not immediately be reached for comment.
Friday’s incident follows two similar episodes in the capital Beirut and the city of Aley on Wednesday, in which savers were able to access part of their funds by force, using fake guns.
Lebanon’s banking association on Thursday urged authorities to hold accountable those who engage in “verbal and physical attacks” on banks and added that the latter would show no leniency.
(Report Timour Azhari; French version Elena Vardon, edited by Kate Entringer)
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