A real-life “spiderman” climbed four storeys of an apartment building in Paris to save a child who was dangling from a balcony.
In videos of the incident from Saturday afternoon, the child – a four-year-old boy, according to Le Parisien – is hanging onto the balcony while people watch in horror below.
fter seeing the child was in danger, it took Mamoudou Gassama, 22, less than a minute to scale the outside of the building and haul the boy over the balcony to safety.
Gassama told Le Parisien he was watching a football match at a nearby restaurant with friends when he heard a commotion.
“We saw a lot of people screaming, honking, so, I crossed the road to save him,” he said.
Gassama did not think twice about scaling the building, telling BFM Paris: “Thank god, I saved him.”
Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo congratulated Gassama for his “act of bravery” after his spectacular rescue.
On Twitter, Hidalgo said she spoke to Gassama over the phone to thank him for his effort.
“He explained to me that he arrived from Mali a few months ago while dreaming of building his life here,” she said.
“I replied that his heroic gesture is 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.”
The boy’s father was arrested for allegedly leaving his son unattended to go shopping, Le Parisien reported.
