Depositors stormed a number of banks in Beirut and the southern suburbs, and in the Ghazieh region, in the south of the country, demanding the return of their deposits.
The Minister of Interior and Municipalities, Bassam Mawlawi, called for an emergency meeting of the Central Security Council, to discuss the emerging events.
Today, Friday, one of the depositors, Jawad Selim, stormed the branch of the Bank of Lebanon and the Gulf in Ramlet Al-Baida in Beirut, carrying a weapon, and detained the employees, demanding to obtain his deposit.
A number of citizens gathered to support the depositor, Jawad Selim, and chanted slogans once morest the Governor of the Banque du Liban, Riad Salameh.” They demanded that depositors come and withdraw their money by force.
And the security forces came to the vicinity of the bank.
Another depositor, Abed Soubra, stormed the BLOM Bank in New Road in Beirut, today, Friday, along with another person, where he detained the employees to demand his deposit.
A number of citizens and depositors attended to show solidarity with him.
The bank branch management contacted the security forces who came to negotiate with the depositor and get him out of the branch.
A state of pandemonium prevailed inside the branch, as employees and customers were detained inside the branch.
Attempts are being made to negotiate with the depositors who entered the two banks in Beirut.
On the other hand, the depositor, Muhammad Ismail Al-Moussawi, stormed the Lebanese-French Bank in Al-Kafaat in the southern suburbs of Beirut, and obtained $20,000 from his deposit in the bank, using a plastic weapon.
Muhammad Ismail al-Moussawi said in a statement that “I had a plastic weapon and left it in front of the bank, and now I will go to surrender myself to the security forces following they took my money by force.”
In the Ghazieh region in southern Lebanon, one of the depositors stormed the Byblos Bank, accompanied by another person, and threatened the employees with a military weapon and poured gasoline, and threatened to burn the branch in case it was not given its deposit.
It is noteworthy that the operation of storming banks by depositors is the fourth, as three previous operations took place, the last of which was a few days ago.
The Minister of Interior and Municipalities in the caretaker government, Judge Bassam Mawlawi, called for an emergency meeting of the Central Security Council, at two o’clock this followingnoon, to discuss the security measures that can be taken in light of the emerging events on the banks.
On the other hand, the Association of Banks announced that it had decided to close all banks in the country, for a period of 3 days, starting next Monday.
