LONDON, Sept 17: Hundreds of panicky depositors converged on British branches of Northern Rock for a third day on Monday to grab savings from the beleagured mortgage lender, the latest victim of a global credit crunch.

Savers showed up at dawn to pull their money out of Britain’s fifth largest mortgage lender, which on last Friday was granted an emergency lending facility by the Bank of England as it struggled to borrow from other banks.

A global credit squeeze has emerged as banks refuse to lend to one other in the aftermath of a sharp downturn in the US housing sector and a wave of defaults by high-risk US borrowers.

Northern Rock’s troubles led to its share price plunging by nearly a third for the second straight trading day on Monday.

The bank’s market value has now slumped by more than half to about 1.25 billion pounds (1.83 billion euros, $2.54 billion) since the close of trading on last Thursday.Northern Rock customers have been withdrawing their savings en masse since Friday.

—AFP