Alex's touching letter to Barack Obama about Syrian refugee boy Omran Daqneesh goes viral

Alex wrote to President Obama asking him to send Syrian refugee boy Omran Daqneesh to live with him and his family. Photo / Facebook

A 6-year-old boy's letter to Barack Obama asking him to send Syrian refugee child Omran Daqneesh to come and live with his family has gone viral.

On his Facebook page Mr Obama said the boy, only know as Alex from New York, was "moved by the heartbreaking images of Omran Daqneesh."

Omran is the five-year-old in Aleppo who was photographed sitting in an ambulance covered in dust and blood and sitting in shock following an air strike.

Omran was photographed sitting in an ambulance covered in dust and blood following an air strike. Photo / AP

Omran's 10-year-old brother Ali died the day after the air raid.

"Alex told me that he wanted Omran to come live with him and his family," Obama wrote. "He wanted to share his bike, and teach him how to ride. He said his little sister would collect butterflies for him. 'We can all play together,' he wrote. 'We will give him a family and he will be our brother,'".

"We should all be more like Alex. Imagine what the world would look like if we were. Imagine the suffering we could ease and the lives we could save," Mr Obama wrote.

The video has now been viewed almost six million times with many people sharing it through their networks.

Alex is just six years old. He lives in Scarsdale, New York. Last month, like people around the world, he was moved by the heartbreaking images of Omran Daqneesh, a five-year-old boy in Aleppo, Syria, sitting in an ambulance, in shock as he tried to wipe the blood from his hands. So Alex sat down and wrote me a letter. This week at a United Nations summit on refugees, I shared Alex's moving words with the world. Alex told me that he wanted Omran to come live with him and his family. He wanted to share his bike, and teach him how to ride. He said his little sister would collect butterflies for him. "We can all play together," he wrote. "We will give him a family and he will be our brother." Those are the words of a six-year-old boy -- a young child who has not learned to be cynical or suspicious or fearful of other people because of where they come from, how they look, or how they pray. We should all be more like Alex. Imagine what the world would look like if we were. Imagine the suffering we could ease and the lives we could save. Listen to Alex, read his letter, and I think you'll understand why I shared it with the world. wh.gov/refugees

Posted by POTUS 44 on Wednesday, 21 September 2016

Users were quick to praise Alex and Mr Obama for sharing the story.

"Sometimes, all it takes is the words of a child to really put things in perspective. Thank you for being so selfless and kind Alex! Don't ever change! We need more people like you in this world!" Heather Legere wrote.

"Alex I hope Omran has the chance to meet you & your family someday. thank you for having such beautiful heart and thank you to your parents for giving that to you," Serpil Can wrote.