'Spiderman' hero who saved child dangling from Paris balcony starts job with fire brigade
Malian migrant given honorary French citizenship and bravery award after death-defying rescue
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Your support makes all the difference.A hero dubbed “Spiderman” after scaling a Paris apartment block to rescue a child dangling from a fourth-floor balcony has started work with the city’s fire brigade.
Mamoudou Gassama made headlines around the world by clambering up the front of the building to pull to the helpless four-year-old to safety.
The Malian migrant’s extraordinary feat earned him French citizenship and job as a firefighter, which he began on Sunday.
The Paris Fire Brigade tweeted a picture of Mr Gassama lined up with 23 other new recruits in their uniform.
The post said: “24 new civic service volunteers including Mamoudou Gassama who joined the Paris fire brigade this afternoon. Congratulations to them.”
At the time of the rescue in May, the 22-year-old had been working for cash-in-hand on building sites in the French capital while living in a hostel room shared with several other men.
He had left his home town of Yanguine in south-western Mali as a teenager in 2013, travelling across the Sahara desert and through Burkina Faso, Niger and Libya to reach Europe.
Following his death-defying feat, Mr Gassama was invited to meet Emmanuel Macron, the French president, who made the migrant an honorary citizen of the country and awarded him a medal for bravery.
Mr Gassama told the president: “I didn’t think about it. I climbed up, and God helped me.”
He was lauded by Anne Hidalgo, the Paris mayor, who nicknamed Mr Gassama the “Spiderman of the 18th” in reference to the district where the drama unfolded.
“Congratulations to Mamoudou Gassama for his act of bravery that saved the life of a child,” she said at the time.
“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.”
The French government was accused of double standards over its embracing of Mr Gassama, with some pointing out Mr Macron had ordered the closure of several migrant camps in Paris days earlier.
British Labour MP David Lammy said: “Does a person really have to do something so extraordinary to stand a chance of becoming a citizen?
“I don’t think that ‘migrants’ should have to behave like superheroes before they are treated like human beings.”
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