When Mamoudou Gassama, a migrant from Mali, saw a four-year-old boy dangling from the balcony of a building, he didn't hesitate to scale the four floors from the outside to reach him before he fell. The incident happened in Paris on Saturday 26 May, when the little boy was left alone in a sixth-floor apartment by his father who had gone shopping. During that time, his son fell from the balcony. After falling two floors, he grabbed ahold of the fourth-floor balcony railing. The neighbours tried to help him, but they weren't able to pull him up. Mr Gassama quickly climbed up, pulling the child safely onto the fourth-floor balcony.
The video of this incident went viral soon after and Mamoudou Gassama was nicknamed 'Spiderman of the 18th' referring to the 18th arrondissement where the drama unfolded. He was also awarded a certificate of courage and dedication by Paris police as well as French citizenship. The four-year old's family thanked him for saving their child.
Where were the child's parents?
It was reported that the child's father was playing Pokemon Go while the incident unfolded. The boy had recently started living in the city with his father instead of living in Réunion with his mother and grandmother. His mother and sibling were to join them in the city in June. The boy's mother said to Antenne Réunion TV that the father was not used to looking after the boy on his own.
She also stated that the father had left him alone before. The father is now facing charges of failing to look after his child and the mother will be questioned by social workers in Réunion. Both the mother and the grandmother thanked Mr Gassama for saving their boy.
When asked about his thoughts during climbing, Gassama said "I like children, I would have hated to see him getting hurt in front of me.
I ran and I looked for solutions to save him and thank God I scaled the front of the building to the balcony."
Who is Mr Gassama?
Mamoudou Gassama is a 22-year-old immigrant who had left his homeland Mali in 2013. He travelled through the Sahara desert, using the migrant route through Burkina Faso, Niger and Libya. He spent a year working in Libya.
He then crossed the Mediterranean to Italy in 2014, successfully reaching Europe on his second attempt. He journeyed on to France because he didn't know anyone from Italy and had family in France. His brother had been living in France for many years, which was one of the reasons why he travelled there.
He was living illegally in France when the incident happened but after his heroic act, he received praise from French leaders and he was granted French citizenship with sincere thanks from French President Emmanuel Macron. Mr Gassama said about his long journey "I suffered a lot. We were caught and beaten but I did not lose hope."
