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A 22-year-old African man, Mamoudou Gassama, has been branded a hero after he scaled the facade of a building to save a 4-year-old child hanging from a 4th-floor balcony.
In a video captured during the rescue, the crowd nervously encourages Gassama. Without a thought for his own safety, Gassama takes just seconds to reach the child and pulls the child to safety .
When asked why he put his own life in danger, he replied ” I did it because it’s a child”.
“I saw all these people shouting, and cars sounding their horns. I climbed up like that and, thank God, I saved the child,” he said. “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.
Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, praised him 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.
Mr Gassama moved to Paris six month ago from Mali and his selfless act earned him high praise .
The young man will next be honoured for his brave rescue by French president Emmanuel Macron who has invited him to the Elysée Palace.
According to initial inquiries by the authorities, the child’s parents were not at home at the time. The father was later held for questioning by police for having left his child unattended and was due in court later, a judicial source said. The child’s mother was not in Paris at the time.
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