'I am very happy today but when Broadway opened I was crying as I remembered my job and businesses in Damascus'

The busy stores were a reminder that she was once a successful businesswoman with a string of shops and restaurants in Damascus, the Syrian capital.

Once wealthy, she now has very little, having been forced to leave Damascus when violence broke out.

Mrs Alyounes, now living in Bradford with her son, Anas, 16, left Damascus in March 2013 for Baghdad, Iraq, where she had friends.

But she had to leave Baghdad last year when extremists with Islamic State began taking over Iraqi cities.

She recalled seeing planes dropping bombs in Damascus and bodies in the streets. In Baghdad, not long after she arrived, there were explosions and bombings.

"I saw somebody killed and three or four bodies in Damascus. The planes were dropping bombs on people. There was blood in the street, emergency services and children crying."

The former teacher, who was among around 50 Syrians at a 'welcome' event in Bradford this week, said he was happy to be in West Yorkshire.

"I love this country very much and I want to thank the Government and David Cameron and his party.

"I have been in Bradford nine months now and my son is studying at an academy. I am continuing my language classes to improve my English.

"I am studying computers and doing maths lessons. I want to work and am looking for a job."

She added: "I am very happy today but when Broadway opened I was crying as I remembered my job and businesses in Damascus."

Mrs Alyounes, whose husband died 14 years ago, said her two daughters had settled in Italy and Sweden.

She misses them and the friends she left behind in Syria.

"I miss people in Syria. We are all very sad about Syria. There is no way to stop the war."

For the time being, Britain is her home.

"It is a nice country, I love it. I love English people."

Her son, Anas, is settling in but has struggled to accept his status as a refugee, according to his mother.

Anas said that Britain had "different language and traditions" but was preferable to living in warzone.

"We were in Damascus. I remember everything - the explosions, the bombings, the rockets. It was horrible. In Iraq there were explosions in the street."

Making a good life in Bradford will not be easy, he says.

"Now we have to start from zero."

A total of 156 Syrians - about half of them children - have settled in the city since March 2014.

Bradford Council chief executive Kersten England said that Bradford was a City of Sanctuary and it was "our humanitarian duty" to welcome people fleeing war.

"We are very proud to have been the first authority in the country to put our hand up and say we will be part of the Vulnerable Person Resettlement Scheme.

"We are a City of Sanctuary and we should be part of the solution to the troubles of the world."