SHOPPERS made origami birds of peace to send to Japan to show their support to the country in the wake of its devastating earthquake.

Visitors to Templars Square Shopping Centre in Cowley, Oxford, raised £1,000 by paying to be shown how to make the paper cranes, which will be sent to the city of Sendai.

Organiser Momo Fujita-Clarkson said: “It is very traditional to make 1,000 birds, and means good luck. We used to send them to soldiers to wish them well.

“We had a lot of people come and take part in Oxford, and there is also a big Japanese community here.”

According to Japanese tradition, anyone who folds 1,000 paper cranes will have their wish come true.

The bird became a symbol of peace after Sadako Sasaki, who was exposed to radiation from the 1945 Hiroshima atomic bomb, began to fold 1,000 paper cranes so she could live.

She died in 1955 aged 12, though her story has since inspired peace activists around the world.

Meanwhile, Oxford University students collected more than £13,500 for Japan’s earthquake victims after a week of street collections in the city centre.

About 20 members of the university’s Japan Society collected donations at Carfax last week.

The cash will go to the British Red Cross’s Japan Tsunami Appeal to help the victims of the disaster which struck Japan on March 11.

Society president Ronan Sato said: “This is an extraordinary sum for any charitable street collection “We would like to thank the people of Oxford for their concern and their generosity.”