Lebanon: Man takes bank staff hostage to get his own savings

You might expect the storming of a bank by a gunman would provoke horror and sympathy for the staff.

Not so in Lebanon, where a man who was told he could not retrieve his savings, took out a gun and took staff hostage.

A nearly seven-hour standoff with armed security forces massed outside ensued.

And a crowd gathered nearby expressing sympathy with the hostage-taker, shouting “down with the banks”.