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Islamic State HSBC

Six HSBC employees sacked over ‘abhorrent’ IS-style beheading clip

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By John Glenday, Reporter

July 7, 2015 | 1 min read

Banking giant HSBC has moved swiftly to fire six employees who filmed a faux beheading in the style of an Islamic State propaganda video, in an effort to stave off the public relations fall-out from the incident.

The offensive video was reportedly shot during a team building event in which the employees took time-out from a go-karting session to don overalls and balaclavas alongside an orange jumpsuit clad ‘victim’.

Posing for the camera whilst one worker shouted ‘Allahu Akhbar’, Arabic for God is greatest, whilst one of his colleagues wielded a coat hanger and another held the kneeling man in front by the shoulders, according to Sky News.

All five ‘hostage takers’ were filmed laughing and joking in the short video, which was first identified by the Sun newspaper.

An HSBC spokesman said: "We do not tolerate inappropriate behaviour. As soon as The Sun brought this video to our attention we took the decision to sack the individuals involved.

"This is an abhorrent video and HSBC would like to apologise for any offence caused."

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