The French President met with Mamoudou Gassama today and offered him the French citizenship, media reports.
When 22-year-old Mamoudou Gassama, undocumented migrant in Paris, France, saw a baby dangling off a 4th floor balcony, he scaled the up in less than 40 seconds and saved the child’s life.
“I saw all these people shouting, and cars sounding their horns. I climbed up like that and, thank God, I saved the child,” Gassama said, according to AFP.
https://www.facebook.com/BiboLOfficiel/videos/10214337551744958/
Videos of the heroic act spread quickly across social media, showing crowds of onlookers cheering on Gassama.
The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, congratulated Gassama for his “act of bravery” and said that she had called to “thank him warmly” personally, she said through Twitter.
She further explained that Mamoudou Gassama “had arrived from Mali a few months ago dreaming of building his life here.”
Avec M. GASSAMA qui a sauvé samedi la vie d’un enfant en escaladant 4 étages à mains nues. Je lui ai annoncé qu’en reconnaissance de cet acte héroïque il allait être régularisé dans les plus brefs délais, et que la brigade des sapeurs-pompiers de Paris était prête à l’accueillir. pic.twitter.com/xMpFlP1UFe
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) May 28, 2018
On Monday morning, the French President Emmanuel Macron met with Mamoudou Gassama at the Elysee Palace to personally thank him.
President Macron personally gave Gassama a medal for his courage and told him that he would be made a naturalized citizen of France. He was also told that he would be offered a role in the Parisian fire service.
The small child’s father has been detained for parental neglect, according to French media.