Lebanon banks close down after wave of hold-ups

All banks in the Lebanese capital of Beirut closed down on Friday after a string of "depositor heists" in the crisis-hit country.

Lebanon has been mired in an economic crisis for more than two years since the value of its currency began plummeting and banks started imposing draconian restrictions on withdrawals.

The holdup of a Beirut bank on Wednesday by an activist who filmed herself using a toy gun sparked a series of copycat raids by people fed up at being unable to withdraw their savings.

There were another nine such incidents in the country as of Friday.

In one of them, a man carrying a gun and jerrycan of fuel demanded staff at a branch of the Byblos Bank in the southern town of Ghaziyeh hand over his deposit.

Lebanon's Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi called for an emergency meeting in the afternoon.

The raids are seen as mostly acts of desperation by Lebanese depositors who do not have criminal records and are trying to settle bills, drawing wide sympathy from the general public.