A hero caretaker helped save two babies from the sixth floor of a burning apartment block in Paris.
Fousseynou Cissé, 39, said he ‘didn’t think twice’ about the danger as he stood on a ledge outside the building’s window to help those inside.
Footage shows him standing next to the window filled with black smoke, signaling to those inside to pass their children to him.
He first helps a five-month old baby and hands him the infant to a man in the the next building before doing the same with a one-year-old.
The school caretaker also rescued two other children and two adults from the burning building in the north end of the city on Friday .
Speaking to Le Parisien, a French newspaper, he said: ‘Given the amount of smoke, they and their children could have suffocated.
‘Their last hope was to throw themselves out the window otherwise… I didn’t ask myself the question. Their lives were in danger. I didn’t think twice.’
He was lying on the sofa after returning home from work when he smelled the smoke from the nearby building and saw a desperate mother holding her baby out of a window.
Fousseynou Cissé, 39, said he ‘didn’t think twice’ about the danger as he stood on a ledge outside window to help those inside
Footage shows him standing next to reaching into the building filled with black smoke, signaling to those inside to pass their children to him
After telling his wife to evacuate with their two-year-old, he started to help his neighbours.
‘I thought I was going to die with my children,’ Naomi, one of the rescued mothers, said following the fire.
It has been reported by local media that ten residents have been taken to hospital for smoke inhalation
Taking to X (formerly Twitter), Rémi Féraud, a senator, wrote: ‘Impressive courage that saved lives. Fousseynou Cissé is a hero who deserves our admiration and the recognition of Paris.’
French MEP Matthieu Valet wrote: ‘Facing death, armed only with his bravery, he saved Naomie, her two children, a neighbor’s five-month-old baby, and her other one-and-a-half-year-old child.
‘Without a weapon. Without a helmet. Just his courage.’
