Paris 'Spider-Man' hero granted French citizenship for daring rescue

The Paris 'Spiderman' hero
(Image credit: CNN/Screenshot)

A young Malian migrant to France who on Saturday effortlessly scaled four stories of an apartment building's balconies in less than 30 seconds to save a child dangling from a railing was granted French citizenship and an audience with French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday to honor his bravery.

Mamoudou Gassama, 22, has been dubbed the "Spider-Man" of Paris for the ease and speed with which he acted. "I like children. I would have hated to see him getting hurt in front of me," Gassama said after the rescue. "I ran and I looked for solutions to save him, and, thank God, I scaled the front of the building to the balcony."

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Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.