A Clifton cafe is encouraging its customers to knit squares of wool that will be turned into blankets to help Syrian people caught up in the current civil war.

Rainbow Cafe on Waterloo Street has needles and wool available with which to knit, with squares required measuring 30 stitches by 30 rows.

Completed squares can also be knitted at home and dropped into a basket at the cafe, which was overflowing with squares when I visited yesterday.

The conflict in Syria has left an estimated four million Syrians in need of humanitarian aid and has also come at a time that has seen the coldest temperatures to hit the region in a decade.