Two attacks on banks today, accounts blocked for three years

BEIRUT - In a Lebanon struggling with chaos, two assaults were reported in two banks carried out by account holders whose accounts, will their savings in dollars, have been frozen for the past three years.

The most resounding gesture was reported in Beirut, where a woman armed with a gun and a fuel tank, accompanied by other account holders, assaulted a branch of the Blom Bank in the central district of Sodeco, succeeding in getting part of her savings in US dollars and Lebanese liras.

Under the threat of the weapon and after dousing herself and some bank employees with gasoline - according to media outlets in Beirut which quoted the Association of Lebanese bank account holders - the woman forced the bank’s director to give her 13,000 dollars and 30 million Lebanese liras (the equivalent of 833 dollars), which were on her account but had been blocked for the past three years.

A few hours later - according to a statement of Muttahidun ("United"), one of the associations representing bank account holders in Lebanon - a second assault was reported in an unidentified bank in Aley, north-east of Beirut.

A month ago, a similar episode had been reported in the capital, with a man armed with an automatic rifle and a gas tank. Back in January, another man, also armed, had targeted a bank in the eastern Beqaa valley to try to get part of his savings.

Three years ago, the cartel of Lebanese banks decided to freeze bank accounts of nearly all investment deposits and accounts in Lebanon’s banks due to the economic collapse and financial default.

AE News