Paris grocery employee extolled as a hero

A 24-year-old Muslim employee of the Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket in Paris is being called a hero after his quick thinking saved several customers during Friday's hostage situation.

Mali-born Lassana Bathily led a group of hostages downstairs to a walk-in freezer as gunman Amedy Coulibaly allegedly prepared to kill them, CNN reports. Bathily turned the freezer and a light off, and announced that he would be the one to go upstairs, leaving the group safely behind.

Bathily told French television station BFMTV he went into a freight elevator, and ran outside. He was stopped by police, and after explaining who he was told the officers how to get to the freezer. "When [the hostages] came out, they congratulated me," Bathily said.

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