A young immigrant, Mamoudou Gassama,
has been hailed as a hero after climbing up to a fourth-floor balcony to save a
four-year-old child hanging from a fourth-floor balcony
Footage of the rescue shows the
22-year-old Gassama pulling himself up the building’s storeys from balcony to
balcony as a man on the fourth floor tries to hold on to the child by leaning
across from a neighbouring balcony
Interviewed by reporters 24 hours
after the rescue, Gassama said he had acted without thinking. He said: “I saw
all these people shouting, and cars sounding their horns. I climbed up like
that and, thank God, I saved the child.” “I felt afraid when I saved the child
... [when] we went into the living room, I started to shake, I could hardly
stand up, I had to sit down,” he added. The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo,
praised Gassama on Twitter for his “act of bravery” as well as phoning him
personally to “thank him warmly
She referred to him as the
“Spider-Man of the 18th”, referring to the Paris district where the rescue
happened. “He explained to me that he had arrived from Mali a few months ago
dreaming of building his life here,” she said. “I told him that his heroic act
is an example to all citizens and that the city of Paris will obviously be very
keen to support him in his efforts to settle in France,” she added.
Macron reportedly said Gassama will
be made a French citizen and will also be offered a place in the fire brigade.
"All the (Gassama's) documents will be put in order," Macron told the
sporty 22-year-old who has become a national hero, referring to his immigration
status. Read more:
No comments:
Post a Comment