A young Malian migrant has been granted French citizenship after a daring rescue of a four-year-old child left dangling from a balcony.
Mamoudou Gassama, who was living in France illegally, was hailed as a real-life ‘Spider-Man’ after scaling the outside of a building in Paris to reach the desperate child.
The 22-year-old reached the baby in less than a minute in a rescue captured on video.
Footage of the dramatic rescue has gone viral on social media.
Mr Gassama was honoured for his bravery by French president Emmanuel Macron at the Elysée Palace on Monday, where he was granted citizenship.
Here’s the full exchange between Mr Macron and Mr Gassama:
Macron: “Can you tell me what happened?”
Gassama: “We were going to watch the match, the final of the Champions League, so we headed out for food….we saw everyone screaming.”
Macron: “What time was this?”
Gassama: “It was at 8pm…I came out I saw a child on the 5th/4th floor. I didn’t think about myself, I ran across the road to save him.”
Macron: “Without thinking, you just went ahead?”
Gassama: I didn’t think about myself…God helped me too. When I started climbing, it (God) gave me more courage.”
Macron: “This all happened in very fast.”
Gassama: “After I saved the child, I went inside the apartment.”
Macron: “Did you realise…”
Gassama: “So there…”
Macron: ” How was the child?”
Gassama: “He was crying, his foot was injured.”
Macron: “Did you see him afterwards?”
Gassama: “Yes”
Macron: “Bravo, what did you do afterwards?”
Gassama: “They took me to the hospital”.
Who hailed Mr Gassama as a real-life ‘Spider-Man’?
Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, praised Gassama calling him “Spider-Man of the 18th”, referring to the Paris district where the incident happened.
