Thousands turn up to newly-opened doughnut shop in Texas after man tweets about how sad his dad was when no-one showed up

Thousands of customers turned up to a newly-opened doughnut shop in the US after a man posted a photo of his father standing alone behind the counter.

Billy By shared the picture on March 9, urging people to visit the shop called "Billy's Donuts."

He wrote: “my dad is sad cause no one is coming to his new donut shop,” followed by a crying face emoji, and accompanied by further pictures of the empty car park and the treats on sale.

The tweet quickly went viral and has received more than 600,000 likes since Saturday.

Within 24 hours, thousands of people had flocked to the shop, which quickly sold out of doughnuts and kolaches - a type of pastry filled with fruit or cheese.

In a follow-up tweet, Billy shared the address and Instagram page, then thanked customers for supporting local businesses.

He wrote: “Just wanted to update yall! We completely sold out of donuts and kolaches!

“You are all amazing. I can’t thank everyone enough for coming out and supporting local businesses.

“This means so much to my family.”

Comments quickly flooded in, and those who had bought doughnuts from the shop described them as “so good” and the “best ever.”

On Saturday, the Instagram page only had 71 followers, but in just two days Billy’s Donuts has racked up 60,000 followers.

A twitter representative even visited the store on Monday to celebrate its success and Billy thanked customers again on Instagram, writing: “My dad isn’t sad anymore!”

People on social media have replied to the story saying: “This made my day,” and “This is the wholesome content I signed up for.”

Another said: "The moment in life where Twitter and whatever social media platform actually does an awesome job."