The #illridewithyou hashtag is continuing to trend on Twitter as a show of support for Muslim Australians after the siege at the Lindt cafe in Sydney.

#illridewithyou is trending worldwide on Twitter, rising by hundreds of tweets per minute – within hours it had been used in almost 120,000 tweets.

702 ABC Sydney have had calls from Muslim listeners who say they are too scared to ride on public transport at the moment.

The hashtag appears to have come from a Facebook post from Rachael Jacobs who was riding on a train, and noticed a Muslim woman quietly take off her head covering.

In her post she said: “I ran after her at the train station. I said ‘put it back on. I’ll walk with u.”

Another woman took to Twitter and wrote: “If you reg take the bus b/w Coogee/Martin PL, wear religious attire, & don’t feel safe alone: I’ll ride with you. @me for schedule.”

The woman, Twitter user @sirtessa, then suggested:

Maybe start a hashtag? What’s in #illridewithyou?

— Sir Tessa (@sirtessa) December 15, 2014

Read the full story here.

ABC’s Radio National spoke to @sirtessa, aka Tessa Kum, about coining the hashtag.