'Come and save me,' children in Syria use Pokémon characters to plead for help

The popularity of Pokémon Go is being used to highlight the plight of children in war-torn Syria.

Youngsters from the region are holding up their messages on posters of characters from the hit game, in a viral campaign by the Revolutionary Forces of Syria Media Office.

While adults of all ages in the West are hunting characters like Pikachu on their smartphones, the children in Syria are living through five years of violent conflict and food shortages.

One of the children's messages, written in Arabic, says: "I am in Kafr Nabl, in rural Idlib, come and save me!"

"I am trapped in Douma in east Ghouta, help me," another reads.

"We want to raise awareness and draw attention to the plight of Syrian children in besieged areas and the suffering of Syrian people who are attacked and killed by Assad regime and its allies," RFS Social Media Editor, Mahmod Abo Bakr told NBC News.

"Syrian children are victims of the war and the brutal and indiscriminate attacks that are carried out on a daily basis by regime and Russian jets. The Syrian children are paying the price for the international inaction to stop the Assad killing machine."

More than a quarter of a million children in Syria are living under siege, according to Save the Children.

Air strikes killed around 4,000 children in a four-year period, according to a study in the British Medical Journal earlier this year.