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Mansour laughs when people call him the new 'hero' of the neighbourhood. "I saw a woman who couldn’t move, so I went to help her because it was very dangerous," said the 19-year-old, trying to downplay his actions. Beside him is Cristina, the woman he rescued by carrying her in his arms to save her from the flooding caused by the Dana storm in Malaga. A day after the scare, the two met again in Calle Héroe de Sostoa, in front of the same petrol station where Mansour came to her aid.
"I was paralysed with fear, I was afraid that a car might come towards me", the 27-year-old said. As she explained, in the morning, despite the red alert for heavy rain, she went to the hairdresser's salon where she works because only a few drops of rain fell in the early hours. At around one o'clock, faced with the downpour, they closed the business, located on the same street. "I was talking to my boyfriend, who was very worried, and with the water I couldn't see anything I was stepping on", she explained.
With the memory of the images of the tragedy that occurred in Valencia during the previous Dana and the fear that had gripped her, her body no longer responded. "I had no control. From then on, I was unable to take a step," she explained.
Mansour, who lives in the same area in one of CEAR's reception flats for asylum seekers, didn't think twice: "The situation was very dangerous," he said in broken Spanish without losing his smile. Seeing her condition, he picked her up in his arms and didn’t set her down until they reached the entrance of her partner’s family’s building.
"Then I came back, to continue helping," explains the young man of Guinean origin. Since the flood chaos began, he has been on the same corner where he saw Cristina, lending a hand to the police, and removing the containers floating down the road. He won a standing ovation from the neighbourhood and has already been dubbed the 'hero' of Sostoa on social media after his action went viral.
Mansour is patiently waiting for his application for international protection to be resolved. The young man arrived in Malaga in October last year after a tough crossing in which he risked his life in a boat to reach the Canary Islands, as CEAR points out, due to the "lack of legal and safe routes". A few days later, he was transferred to the city, where he has the support of this organisation.
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