The 22-year-old man, an undocumented migrant from Mali, rescued a child who was hanging precariously from the fourth floor of a block of flats in Paris (18th arrondissement) on Saturday evening, climbing up the side of the building to the cheers and applause of numerous onlookers.
A scene that was filmed and shared on social media, turning Mamoudou Gassama into a hero – nicknamed ‘Spiderman’, amongst other things.
Mamoudou Gassama was received by Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée Palace, where he held a one-to-one meeting with him. The Head of State announced that the man who saved the child would be granted French citizenship and would join the fire service as part of the civic service programme.