[WATCH] Mamoudou Gassama: 'Spiderman' of Paris scales building to rescue dangling boy

A Malian migrant has been hailed a hero after he scaled the front of a building in Paris to save a child hanging from a fourth-floor balcony.

Videos show 22-year-old Mamoudou Gassama's using his bare hands to pull himself up from balcony to balcony. As he reached the fourth floor, Gassama puts one leg over the balcony before reaching out with his right arm and grabbing the child, all in less than one minute.

Firefighters arrived at the scene to find the child had already been rescued.

“Luckily, there was someone who was physically fit and who had the courage to go and get the child,” a fire service spokesman said.

Tracked down by reporters 24 hours after the heroic rescue, Gassama said he had acted without thinking. “I saw all these people shouting, and cars sounding their horns. I climbed up like that and, thank God, I saved the child,” he said.

“I felt afraid when I saved the child ... [when] we went into the living room, I started to shake, I could hardly stand up, I had to sit down,” he added.

President Emmanuel Macron has invited Gassama to the Elysee Palace on Monday to thank him personally.

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo also praised the man’s heroism and said she had called him to thank him.

She referred to him as the "Spiderman of the 18th", referring to the Paris district where the rescue took place.

"Congratulations to Mamoudou Gassama for his act of bravery that saved the life of a child," Hidalgo tweeted.

"He explained to me that he had arrived from Mali a few months ago dreaming of building his life here.

"I replied that his heroic gesture was an example for all citizens and that the City of Paris will obviously be keen to support him in his efforts to settle in France."

Mamoudou Gassama's brave rescue effort was also acknowledged by the Party of European Socialists

According to initial inquiries by the authorities, the child’s parents were not at home at the time. The father was later held for questioning by police for having left his child unattended and was due in court later, a judicial source said. The child’s mother was not in Paris at the time.