A group of young men from an underprivileged Paris suburb have launched a social media campaign challenging others to feed homeless refugees and migrants.

The trend has spread across the city and beyond. At least seven other districts in Paris and have taken up the challenge, as have neighbourhoods in Toulouse and Marseilles.

Paris has seen a visible increase in the number of refugees sleeping rough on its streets. Charity workers have said there are now around 1,000 living in makeshift camps around the city.

Malik Diallo, a delivery driver from Sarcelles, in the northern suburbs of Paris, decided to take action after he saw a woman and a young child lying in the street.

He and a group of friends cooked 150 plates of hot food. They made Tchep – a West African rice dish – and prepared sandwiches.

Laden with food and drinks, they headed towards the Stalingrad area and handed out their offerings to those sleeping rough.

“None of us had done this before: we had no idea how this would happen,” Mr Diallo told French weekly, L’Express.

“This experience has touched us all, it’s very moving,” he added.

Refugees welcome here: Protesters demand UK resettle more migrants in response to refugee crisis Show all 7 1 /7 Refugees welcome here: Protesters demand UK resettle more migrants in response to refugee crisis Refugees welcome here: Protesters demand UK resettle more migrants in response to refugee crisis The Solidarity With Refugees group said Saturday’s protest aimed to “show our Government and the world that Britain is ready to welcome more refugees”. Rex Features Refugees welcome here: Protesters demand UK resettle more migrants in response to refugee crisis People march through central London as they take part in a protest rally organised by Solidarity with Refugees in a bid to urge the Government to take more action on the migrant crisis Press Association Refugees welcome here: Protesters demand UK resettle more migrants in response to refugee crisis The protest comes days before world leaders meet to discuss crisis at UN General Assembly Press Association Refugees welcome here: Protesters demand UK resettle more migrants in response to refugee crisis Demonstrators made their way from Park Lane to Parliament Square in London on Saturday afternoon Press Association Refugees welcome here: Protesters demand UK resettle more migrants in response to refugee crisis Marchers chanted “refugees are welcome here” and waved banners reading “no-one is illegal” and “let’s help people” Press Association Refugees welcome here: Protesters demand UK resettle more migrants in response to refugee crisis The march was supported by charities and groups including the Red Cross, Asylum Aid, Save the Children, Hope Not Hate, Oxfam and the UN Refugee Agency Rex Features Refugees welcome here: Protesters demand UK resettle more migrants in response to refugee crisis In the wake of Alan’s death, David Cameron pledged to resettle 20,000 Syrian refugees in the UK over the coming five years but there have been additional calls to re-home those who have already reached Europe, as well as asylum seekers coming from other conflict zones such as Iraq and Afghanistan Rex Features

They posted a ten-minute video of the event on Facebook and challenged another neighbourhood, Sablons, to feed the migrants in the same way. The clip attracted more than 70,000 views and was shared hundreds of times.

"This will show what [our] neighbourhoods are really like – and the image is very different from what people usually see, which is all about drugs and violence," Mr Diallo said.

One resident in Sablons, which took up the challenge, told French daily, Le Parisien: "Here, we know the value of solidarity. Our parents were migrants. We all experienced the misery.”

Paris' makeshift camps, which are home to more than a thousand people, are routinely subject to evictions – "a few hundred" people at a time.

In 2015, nearly 80,000 people applied for asylum in France, with many living in the Calais camp.

France has called on the UK to take responsibility for those living in the Jungle, many of whom have family ties to the UK.