The Muslim worker who saved lives at the kosher supermarket

A Muslim employee of the kosher market told French media on Saturday that he helped hide several people, including a baby, in one of the freezers downstairs.

Lassana Bathily, 24, told Metronews that his knowledge of the store and a cool head helped him act quickly to lead a number of shoppers who were cowering at the back of the store down the stairs and conceal them from the gunman.

“I opened the door of the freezer and a number of people went inside, I turned off the lights and the freezer itself,” he told the newspaper.

Bathily, who is originally from Mali, said he told the shoppers to stay calm, closed the door and managed to flee the store using an elevator. He was then able to tell security forces about the people hiding in the freezer and give them an indication of what was happening inside.

When the siege was over, he said people came over to congratulate and thank him.

Bathily is interviewed in French here.

For more on the victims and the siege, see: Four Jews cut down by an Islamist killer who ‘showed no mercy’