Bank of Antigua customers stage run on bank after owner Allen Stanford comes under criminal investigation.

Hundreds of people lined up at Texas billionaire Allen Stanford's Antiguan bank on Wednesday seeking to withdraw funds, a day after the tycoon was charged with an $8 billion fraud.

Two police officers stood watch at the Bank of Antigua at midmorning as at least 600 people stood in a line stretching around a street corner, despite assurances from regional monetary authorities that the bank had sufficient reserves.

"I'm worried and I'd like to get my money out," said Andrea Lamar, 28, who joined the line with a friend on a street popular with tourists in the state capital, St. John's.

A woman in the queue who declined to give her name said, "I wasn't panicked until I saw this crowd. Now I'm concerned."

The six-nation Eastern Caribbean Central Bank posted a statement at Bank of Antigua saying many depositors had started to withdraw funds, "causing some anxiety," but that the bank had sufficient reserves.

"However, if individuals persist in rushing to the bank in a panic, they will precipitate the very situation that we are all trying to avoid," the statement said. More