Manchester demonstration: ‘My children will soon meet their Syrian grandparents’

Mr Alfaisal was among hundreds of Syrians who attended a celebration in St Peter’s Square on Sunday.

Dr Yasmine Nahlawi from Manchester-based charity Rethink Rebuild Society, which organised the gathering, said: “As a Syrian community, we are feeling a mix of… very very powerful emotions – joy and celebration.

“But also… we are mourning the loss of people who didn’t see this day.”

Rama Terkmani fled Syria with her family at the age of six, a year after the war broke out, first to Egypt and then Liverpool where they have lived for almost a decade.

Now aged 19 and a medical student at the University of Central Lancashire, she said she had lost several family members in the war, and had a cousin who had been taken away by the Assad regime.

She said: “We don’t know if he’s alive or if he’s not alive. We don’t know anything.”

Ms Terkmani said while she wanted to return to her home city of Damascus, she was grateful for the life she had in the UK.

She added: “This country supported me a lot with education, mental health issues.”