Malian immigrant who saved hostages becomes Frenchman

PARIS - French authorities on Tuesday honored a Mali-born employee who saved lives at the kosher supermarket attacked by terrorists as a hero and granted him French citizenship.

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve praised Muslim Lassana Bathily, 24, for his "courage" and "heroism" during a ceremony in the presence of Prime Minister Manuel Valls.

Cazeneuve said Bathily's "act of humanity has become a symbol of an Islam of peace and tolerance."

"Tonight I'm very proud and deeply touched," Bathily said with tears in his eyes, humbly stressing that he doesn't consider himself a hero. "I am Lassana. I'll stay true to myself."

"People are all equal to me and skin color isn't a matter. France is the country of human rights," he added.

Bathily was in the store's underground stockroom when gunman Amedy Coulibaly burst in upstairs on January 9 and killed four people. He turned off the stockroom's freezer and hid a group of shoppers inside before sneaking out through a fire escape to speak to police and help them with their operation to free the 15 hostages and kill the attacker.

According to Agence France-Presse, 220,000 people signed an online petition calling for Bathily's naturalization. Bathily, a practicing Muslim, has downplayed his actions.

"We're brothers. It's not a question of Jews, Christians or Muslims," he told French news channel BFMTV. "We're all in the same boat, and we have to help one another to get out of this crisis."

Bathily has lived in France since 2006. He left his home in Mali to join his mother and is enrolled in a vocational school in northern Paris, according to the French newspaper Le Monde. He had filed an application for French citizenship last year.