Young France prop Demba Bamba took time out of his Rugby World Cup preparations to help save people from a burning building on Monday evening.
The 21-year-old tighthead prop, who made his first Test start during the 2019 Guinness Six Nations, was back home in Saint Denis with the France squad given a few days off during their World Cup preparation.
And according to reports in Le Parisien, Bamba and some friends helped avert a disaster when a block of flats caught fire in the area.
The youngsters had been playing football when the fire broke out, and ran into the building to help residents get out.
Le Parisien reports that Bamba and friend Mathieu, 24, went up to the fifth floor and they banged on the door of a flat where they heard some noise.
Mathieu said: “We were banging on the door, we were shouting, we really thought there will people inside, we could hear noise.”
Once the fire brigade arrived, they were able to confirm that the flat was empty.
Khaled Benamara, the president of the residents’ association, thanked the duo for their quick reactions to the situation.
He told Le Parisien: “The youngsters from the area reacted remarkably. They helped people out of the building, notably older, more fragile individuals. Without them, it could easily have turned to disaster.”
Bamba was visiting family and returns to join the rest of his France teammates in Nice ahead of Saturday’s match against Scotland.
That will be France’s first World Cup warm-up match, with further encounters against the Scots, at BT Murrayfield, and Italy at the Stade de France, to follow.
