PARIS: A Parisian shop-owner who helped prevent a masked gang from kidnapping the daughter of a French crypto businessman has been hailed as a hero after he rushed at the attackers with a fire extinguisher.
French prosecutors are investigating after a gang on Tuesday (May 13) attempted to kidnap a woman identified by the local press as the daughter of a crypto boss. The brazen attempted kidnapping on the streets of Paris is at least the third attack against French crypto industry players in recent months, underlining growing threats to the industry’s wealthy entrepreneurs.
Video widely shared on social media shows three masked men wrestling with two people on the ground, the woman and her husband, while a van waits nearby. A man can then be seen rushing towards the attackers with a fire extinguisher, before they escape into the back of a getaway van. The man then throws the extinguisher at the departing vehicle.
Passersby on Wednesday cheered the man, who gave his name only as Nabil, as he spoke to Reuters outside his bicycle shop in Paris’ 11th arrondissement.
“You’re a champion,” one woman said, while another man called out to him from across the street.
“Thank you very much. That’s kind,” Nabil replied.
