A young man has been hailed a hero after he scaled the facade of a building to save a four-year-old child hanging from a fourth-floor balcony. Without a thought for his own safety, Mamoudou Gassama took just seconds to reach the child in a spectacular rescue captured on film and viewed millions of times on social networks.
The incident took place at about 8pm on Saturday in northern Paris.

Footage of the rescue shows Gassama, 22, pulling himself up from balcony to balcony with his bare hands as a man on the fourth floor tries to hold on to the child by leaning across from a neighbouring balcony.

On reaching the fourth floor, Gassama puts one leg over the balcony before reaching out with his right arm and grabbing the child.

Firefighters arrived at the scene to find the child had already been rescued.

“Luckily, there was someone who was physically fit and who had the courage to go and get the child,” a fire service spokesman said.

Tracked down by reporters 24 hours after the heroic rescue, Gassama said he had acted without thinking. “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.

“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.
The young man will next be honoured for his brave rescue by French president Emmanuel Macron who has invited him to the Elysée Palace on Monday, his office said.

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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBCurldzXBk

How did the baby get there

Sincerely, such bravery is rare..
He should not Just be recognized but given residency nd Possibly citizenship..

Bravery on the dude's part.

But why didn't the adult that was already holding the child simply pull him back into the balcony instead of waiting for spider man to come to the rescue. Surely he ought to have enough strength to lift or pull a toddler.

ayourbamie:
How did the baby get there

Caused by the parents Lackadaisical behavior, the mother was not around and the father was carefree.

menix:
Sincerely, such bravery is rare..
He should not Just be recognized but given residency nd Possibly citizenship..

He's metting Mr president of France Dis Saturday and am sure u guess is as good as mine. Let's say it shall be permanent

spartan117:
Bravery on the dude's part.

But why didn't the adult that was already holding the child simply pull him back into the balcony instead of waiting for spider man to come to the rescue. Surely he ought to have enough strength to lift or pull a toddler.

One thing is to have strength another is to not be overwhelmed by fear. Coz when Dis sets in ur strength becomes weakness

I learnt a valuable lesson from this.Uncommon favour comes with a lot of hardwork,and bravery.A lazy man can never earn uncommon favour.I am sure there were other African immgrants there that did not do anything.He might not have seen it as an opportunity but he did what he could from his heart and the major issues he had were solved asap.Uncommon favour is hard.

If you know you know, the guy above me you know nau! U deserve a pole with a stripper inside ur room

That guy climbed 4 storeys without a safety belt or any help... in less than 40 seconds. I doubt he would have done this on a normal day but see how the human mind works? when it is a matter of life and death. I salute the bros. Awesome.

menix:
Sincerely, such bravery is rare..
He should not Just be recognized but given residency nd Possibly citizenship..

He was given automatic citizenship, and given work as a firefighter

He was an illegal migrant.
I was wondering why the father couldn't pull up the child, when I first saw the video, but now I understand. There was a divide btw the balcony