Paris: Muslim hero who saved Jews in kosher supermarket siege awarded French nationality

A French supermarket worker who saved the lives of a number of Jewish customers in the kosher supermarket shooting is to be awarded French nationality next week.

Lassana Bathily, aged 24, a Malian Muslim, was working as a clerk in the Hyper Cacher supermarket, when gunman Amedy Coulibaly stormed into the shop and executed four hostages, while a number of others remained in the shop.

Bathily ushered a several terrified customers into the shop's large freezer and turned it off so they could hide from Coulibaly, who has since pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (Isis) in a posthumous video.

"When they ran down, I opened the door [from the freezer]," he told French channel BFMTV.

"There were several people who came to me. I turned off the light and I turned off the freezer.

"When I turned off the cold, I put them [hostages] in, I closed the door, I told them to stay calm."

Bathily saved 15 hostages from the danger of Coulibaly and his anonymous accomplice before he himself escaped through a fire escape to talk to police.

Coulibaly was killed in the police raid on the grocery while the second gunman remains at large.

Over 200,000 people had signed a petition calling for Bathily to be given French citizenship and to be awarded with the Legion d'honneur, France's highest honour.