The unusual suspects On 11th August 2022 Bassam al-Sheikh Hussein walked into a Beirut bank brandishing a rifle and a canister of petrol and threatened to set himself on fire if he wasn’t given $210,000. Seven hours later, having taken several employees of Federal Bank hostage, the food delivery driver accepted an offer of $30,000 and surrendered to […]
A Lebanese man who took a bank hostage in order to access his own money is being hailed as a hero by the public in Beirut.
Bassam al-Sheikh Hussein, a 42-year-old food-delivery driver, stormed the Federal Bank branch in the capital to withdraw a part of his frozen savings of $210,000 to help pay for his father’s hospital bill.
According to AFP news agency, he entered the bank with a rifle, poured petrol and demanded his money. Following a seven-hour stan-doff, he was promptly arrested and taken out of the bank, with no injury being reported.
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A crowd of protesters gathered outside the bank to support the gunman, with some hailing him as a hero. Lebanon is grappling with a severe economic crisis the country's worst in modern history.