Nice attack: Locals open their doors for those affected by terrorist act with #PortesOuvertesNice

Local residents use the hashtag as a way of offering shelter to those displaced by the attack

Residents of Nice welcomed those affected by the attacks into their homes using the #PortesOuvertesNice hashtag (AP)

Residents of Nice have used a hashtag on social media to offer shelter to those affected by the recent terrorist attack.

The hashtag #PortesOuvertesNice - meaning "Nice Open Doors" - began circulating on Twitter and Facebook after the lorry rampage that killed more than 80 people and injured hundreds.

Local people have used it to invite people into their homes, stating their location and encouraging people in need to get in touch.

People from outside Nice have also used the #PortesOuverte hashtag to offer accommodation and support to those who have been displaced by the attack.

Some have suggested people use the free taxi service that came into operation following the incident to travel out of the city to their homes.

A similar hashtag was used following the Paris attacks in November 2015, when scores of Parisians offered refuge to people stranded in the city after the deadly shootings that killed 130 people.

As well as being a platform to offer people shelter, people have used social media in the aftermath of the Nice attack to appeal for information about missing loved ones.

Photographs of those missing have been posted on Twitter and a Facebook page called SOS Nice has been set up as a platform for appealing to the public for information.

More than 80 people are confirmed to have died as a result of the attack and more than 200 have been injured. Some people remain in a critical condition.

The attacker has been named in reports as Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, a 31-year-old from Nice with French-Tunisian nationality.

He was reportedly a father-of-three known to police for domestic violence.