PARIS: The Muslim employee who helped save the lives of several customers in the supermarket attack in Paris will be awarded with French nationality.
According to Interior Bernard Cazeneuve announcement, Lassana Bathily will be awarded with French nationality due to his act of bravery, which saved several lives in the supermarket.
He will be awarded on January 20 in a ceremony, French media reported.
The 24-year-old shop assistant was in the underground stockroom on Friday when gunman Amédy Coulibaly burst in upstairs, firing from a Kalashnikov.
“When he (the gunman) entered the store, people came rushing down saying there was an armed madman,” Bathily told FRANCE 24. “I thought the only option was to hide in the freezer, so I switched it off and got everyone inside.”
He arrived in France at the age of 16 in 2006. He said he tried to persuade some to follow him as he sneaked out of the building using a goods lift, but they were too scared to move.
“I knew the emergency exits so I took my chance, but if the gunman had seen me I would have been dead,” he said.
He also got a call from President François Hollande on Sunday, ahead of the huge unity rally that drew more than one million people to the streets of Paris.
There was also praise from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who took part in the historic march, along with the head of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas.
A Facebook page created on Saturday for the supermarket hero has garnered more than 22,400 likes, while thousands of people on Twitter have shared the hashtag #UneMedaillePourLassana (A medal for Lassana).
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