Lebanese woman holds up her bank

 

Lebanese soldiers stand guard outside the Blom branch in Beirut, Lebanon, on Wednesday. Photograph: Wael Hamzeh/EPA

A woman with a toy pistol and a group of activists called Depositors’ Outcry broke into her Beirut bank branch and demanded $13,000 from her trapped savings.

They doused the inside of the bank with petrol and threatened to set it alight which was live-streamed on Facebook.

Sali Hafez said she needed the money to pay for her sister’s cancer treatment but was told she could receive only $200 a month in Lebanese pounds. Hafez said the toy pistol belonged to her nephew.