Updated: 11.27 pm
SHOCKING IMAGES AND footage have emerged today showing the lifeless body of a little Syrian boy washed up on a Turkish beach.
It is believed the toddler drowned after two boats bound for Greece sank in Turkish waters.
The corpses of 12 people, including five children and one woman, were found and 15 people were rescued, with some surviving after reaching the shore in life jackets.
Heartbreaking images show the dark-haired boy, wearing a red t-shirt and blue shorts, lying face down in the sand at the shore.
They also show a policeman cradling his lifeless body and carrying it off the beach.
BBC News tonight reported that he has been named as three-year-old Aylan Kurdhi. His five-year-old brother Galip, and mother Rihan, also drowned last night.
Aylan’s father Abdullah survived.
The image below is distressing and may upset some readers.
Since the images emerged, the hashtag #KiyiyaVuranInsanlik – Humanity washed ashore – has been trending as people express their outrage and sadness about the little boy’s plight.
The Dogan news agency which published the images said most of the people in the two boats were believed to be from the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobane and they had fled to Turkey to escape violence by Islamic State extremists.
- With reporting from AFP.
Originally published: 6.56 pm
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