'Sickening': Photographs of a young Syrian boy, beaten by a restaurant manager in Turkey, have gone viral on social media, sparking an outpouring of sympathy

A Syrian boy beaten up by a restaurant owner in Turkey has sparked a wave of outrage and sympathy on social media.

Photographs of the refugee boy, who sells tissues on the streets of the western city Izmir, went viral on social media yesterday following the attack.

The young boy, identified as Ahmed Hamdo Abeyd, can be seen crying with a bleeding nose in the photographs, following the attack in the city’s Basmane Square.

The uproar drew the attention of Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who has demanded that provincial party leader find out the whereabouts of the child so he can be cared for.

‘I was only selling tissues. While I was about to sell a pack to a lady there, they pulled me aside and hit me,’ the local Hurriyet Daily reported Ahmed as saying, following the attack.

‘They stepped on me. Syrians on the other side of the road rushed and poured water on me and I gained consciousness only then.’

One sympathiser wrote on Twitter: ‘Many tears for Syrian refugee boy beaten in Turkey, hope it’s true the creeps are in jail for attacking him.’

Others demanded fellow Turks to ‘stop hurting kids’ and called the attack ‘sickening’.

‘My heart wreck [sic] seeing a Syrian refugee boy beaten who is trying to sell tissue to customers in Turkey. I am crying now,’ added another.

Vulnerable: The young boy was selling tissues in Basmane Square, in the western city of Izmir, when he was attacked by the furious restaurant manager, who is reported to have slapped and punched him

Assault: The photographs caught the attention of the Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who has demanded that the boy and his family are traced so they can be cared for

The restaurant manager was enraged by the boy who he said was disturbing the customers, according to the local Daily Sabah.

When the boy resisted, the manager slapped the boy and continued to beat him, despite customers and passersby trying to stop the assault.

The attack has shocked residents of Izmir, Turkey’s third largest city, which is well-known for its liberal stance.

Another attack on a Syrian refugee boy by a manager of a Burger King in Istanbul sparked similar outrage six months ago.

Turkey is home to more than 1.7million Syrian refugees, according to the UN Refugee Agency, who have been displaced by the four-year civil war.