BRAVO, LE SPIDEY!
Migrant saves Paris kid, wins citizenship
A Malian immigrant will be granted French citizenship for his daring, Spider-Man-style rescue of a boy who was dangling from a fourth-floor balcony in Paris.
French President Emmanuel Macron himself fast-tracked the residency process for Mamoudou Gassama, who scaled the facade of an apartment building on Sunday — nimbly pulling himself up from balcony to balcony — to reach the 4-year-old child.
Video of the stunning rescue — which Gassama, 22, completed in less than minute — went viral Monday and landed him at the Élysée Palace for a face-toface meeting with Macron.
“This is an exceptional act,” the president told Gassama, who had tried to cross the Mediterranean to Italy in March 2014 but was nabbed by authorities.
“We’ll obviously be setting all your papers straight, and if you wish it, we will start the process naturalization so that you can become French.”
Macron said he hoped Gassama could find “meaningful” work.
“What you have done corresponds with what firefighters do. If this fits your wishes, you could join the firefighters corps so that you can do [such acts] on a daily basis,” Macron said.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo also praised Gassama, who told her he arrived in France a few months ago and hoped to stay.
“I replied that his heroic gesture was an example for all citizens and that the city of Paris will obviously be keen to support him in his efforts to settle in France,” Hidalgo said.
Gassama, who suffered only a few scratches in the rescue, was passing by when he noticed the commotion over the dangling boy and leapt into action, France’s Le Parisien reported.
“I did it because it was a child,” he told the newspaper. “I climbed . . . Thank God I saved him.”
In the video, onlookers are heard cheering and applauding as Gassama scrambles upward.
With two bystanders trying to help from a neighboring balcony, he grabs the boy by the arm and hoists him back over the railing.
The child had been left unattended by his parents, according to French TV station BFM. His father was arrested on suspicion of not fulfilling his parental responsibility.