May 28 (UPI) — A Paris man on Sunday scaled four stories of a building to save a toddler that was hanging from a ledge.
Mamoudou Gassama, 22, told local news organizations that he was watching a soccer game at a restaurant in the Paris neighborhood when he heard a baby was in danger across the street.
“We saw a lot of people screaming, honking, so, I crossed the road to save him,” Gassama told Le Parisien.
Video of the the heroic act shows it took Gassama less a minute to scale all four stories of the building and pull the toddler to safety as a crowd of people on the street cheer him on.
“I did it because it was a child,” Gassama told Le Parisien. “Thank God I saved him.”
Gassama, who just moved to Paris from Mali less than a year ago, got a call from Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, who thanked and congratulated him.
“Congratulations to Mamoudou Gassama for his act of bravery that saved the life of a child,” Hidalgo tweeted. “He explained to me that he had arrived from Mali a few months ago dreaming of building his life here. 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.”
