BEIRUT (AP) — A Lebanese man armed with a shotgun broke into a Beirut bank on Thursday, holding employees hostage and threatening to set himself ablaze with gasoline unless he receives his trapped savings, a security official said.
The man, identified as 42-year-old Bassam al-Sheikh Hussein, allegedly entered a branch of the Federal Bank in Beirut’s bustling Hamra district carrying a canister of gasoline and held six or seven bank employees hostage, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations. However, George al-Haj, the head of the Bank Employees Syndicate, told local media that there are some seven or eight bank employees held hostage, as well as two customers.