BEIRUT: Five Lebanese banks were stormed on Friday by depositors seeking to unlock frozen savings, the latest in a string of “heists” in the crisis-hit country that have garnered wide public support.

Lebanon has been mired in an economic crisis for more than two years, since the value of its currency began plummeting and banks started imposing draconian restrictions on withdrawals.

In the past week, seven bank branches have been targeted by “depositor heists”, prompting lenders to announce a three-day closure starting on Monday, according to the Association of Banks in Lebanon. As the “heists” snowballed on Friday, Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi called for an emergency meeting in the afternoon.

The holdup of a Beirut bank on Wednesday by an activist who filmed herself using a toy gun appears to have sparked a series of copycat raids by people fed up at being unable to withdraw their savings.

On Friday, there were another three such incidents in Beirut and two in south Lebanon, AFP correspondents and a security source said.

In one case, a man carrying a gun and jerrycan of fuel demanded staff at a branch of the Byblos bank in the southern town of Ghaziyeh hand over his deposit.

Accompanied by his son, the man in his 50s threatened bank staff with the gun, which a Lebanese television channel said may have been a toy, before making his demand.

“He emptied a jerrycan of fuel on the floor,” a bank security guard said. The man walked away with about $19,000 in cash but turned himself in to police moments later as a crowd formed in front of the bank to support him.

Not ‘a bank robber’

A few hours later in the Beirut neighbourhood of Tariq al-Jdideh, a tense security situation developed around a branch of Blom Bank, although details were unclear.

Witnesses outside the bank said an indebted shop-owner had demanded access to his trapped savings. He was locked inside the bank together with police officers, the witnesses said, but was thought to be unarmed.

Another man armed with a hunting rifle stormed a bank in Beirut’s Ramlet el-Baida neighbourhood on Friday, witnesses said. The spate of heists comes two days after a young activist stormed a central Beirut bank with fuel and plastic gun to demand the deposits of her sister, who needed to pay for cancer treatment.

The woman identified as Sali Hafiz made off with around $13,000 and became an instant hero on social media with a picture of her standing on a desk inside the bank during the raid going viral on social media.

“She had every right to do this. I would do the same if I was as brave as her,” said Carla Chehab, a 28-year-old Beirut resident. “And don’t let anyone call her a bank robber. The thieves are the banks, the government and all rich people protecting them,” she added.

Also on Wednesday, a man held up a bank in the city of Aley northeast of Beirut, the official National News Agency reported.

Published in Dawn, September 17th, 2022