Armed man demanding savings holds Beirut bank staff hostage

Lebanese security forces secure the area outside the bank in Beirut (Hussein Malla/AP/PA)

A Lebanese man armed with a shotgun broke into a Beirut bank on Thursday, holding employees and customers hostage and threatening to set himself alight with petrol unless he receives his trapped savings.

The man, identified as 42 year-old Bassam al-Sheikh Hussein, who entered a branch of the Federal Bank in Beirut’s busy Hamra district, was carrying a canister of fuel.