Lassana Bathily, the Malian immigrant who helped save hostages during last week's attack at a kosher supermarket in France, will be rewarded with French citizenship next week, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve announced today.

As gunman Amedy Coulibaly seized the market, Bathily led several co-workers and customers into the store's freezer, turned off the lights, and told everyone to remain calm.

"I heard shots and I saw my colleagues and clients running down," Bathily told the AFP. "I told them 'Come, come,' [and] got them into the freezer."

Bathily then proposed that the group flee the store together through a backdoor. When the others refused, Bathily left on his own and made it outside, where he gave police information about the gunman and the hostages in the freezer.

"When [the hostages] came out, they congratulated me," Bathily told BFMTV.

Bathily, a practicing Muslim, has lived in France for six years and first applied for citizenship in July. More than 300,000 people signed a Change.org petition asking for him to be awarded France's presigious Legion d'Honneur for his heroics.

"We're brothers. It's not a question of Jews, Christians or Muslims," Bathily told French news channel BFMTV after the attack. "We're all in the same boat, and we have to help one another to get out of this crisis."

[Image via Getty]