Man Scales Building to Save Dangling Child

A Malian immigrant dubbed Spiderman for scaling four storeys to save a child dangling from a balcony in Paris will be made a French citizen after meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron this morning.

Mamoudou Gassama, 22, was hailed a hero for single-handedly hauling the four-year-old to safety after scaling the facade of an apartment block in the capital's 18th arrondissement.

The dramatic rescue, which saw Gassama clamber from balcony to balcony and reaching the child in less than 30 seconds, was captured on video and widely shared on social media. He has since been compared to the Marvel superhero Spiderman.

Film of the rescue shows Gassama pulling himself up from balcony to balcony with his bare hands as a man on the fourth floor tries to hold on to the child by leaning across from a neighbouring balcony.

On reaching the fourth floor Gassama puts one leg over the balcony before reaching out with his right arm and grabbing the child. Firefighters arrived at the scene to find the child had already been rescued.

One witness told Le Parisien: 'There is a fence and a gap between them... The neighbour could not afford to lean back to get the child himself.' 

The only injury sustained by the child was a torn nail. Gassama suffered a few scratches. An investigation into the incident is now underway.