Woman Robs Bank With Toy Gun To Pay For Sister’s Cancer Treatment

A woman identified as Sali Hafiz has robbed a bank in Beirut, Lebanon capital, with a toy gun.

The suspect streamed a live video on Facebook of her raid on a Beirut branch of Blom Bank as she robbed thousands of dollars to pay for treatment for her ill sister.

She said: “I am Sali Hafiz, I came today… to take the deposits of my sister who is dying in hospital.”

“I did not come to kill anyone or to start a fire… I came to claim my rights.”

This development is coming in the wake of other robberies of banks where savings of depositors have been devalued and trapped in banks for almost three years amid a dwindling economic fortunes.

The woman’s action has been applauded by many in beleaguered Lebanon.

Speaking in an interview with a Lebanese broadcaster after the raid, Hafiz said she managed to free about $13,000 of the $20,000 she said her family had deposited adding that cancer treatments costs $50,000.

She also told media outlets that she used her nephew’s toy pistol for the hold up.

An AFP correspondent present at the scene said Hafiz and her accomplices reportedly fled through a smashed window at the back of the bank before security forces arrived.