Furious investors accused crisis-hit Spanish lender Bankia yesterday of swindling them, as they lined up for the first shareholders’ meeting since its rescue.

Hundreds of people descended on the meeting in the eastern city of Valencia, demanding answers after Bankia crumbled under a mountain of bad loans and had to cry out for massive state aid.

“Heads must roll,” said Elizabeth Gonzalez, a 57-year-old pensioner queuing up at the Valencia Conference Centre.

Like thousands of others, she has seen tens of thousands of euros in savings evaporate as the Bankia share price plummets.

“I lost more than I had earned in 10 years. I have come to get what they owe me. I am ashamed of my country,” Ms Gonzalez said.

The bank, which racked up huge loans in a real estate bubble that imploded in 2008, was nationalised in May and has pleaded for €23.5 billion to repair its balance sheets.

In less than a year since listing at €3.50, Bankia shares have plunged by more than 70 per cent to less than one euro. Many customers say they did not realise the risks when they were invited by the bank to take a stake in the business.

A few steps away, activists from the popular “indignant” protest movement, which fights against economic injustice, banged cooking pans outside the conference centre.

They all decry the Bankia “con”.

Many said they trusted their banker when they bought preferential interest-bearing shares, which were converted into ordinary shares.

“My bank manager told me it was safe. I believed her and I lost €25,000...” said Alfredo Anchel, 64, who took early retirement from a fuel transport company.