Tragedy of the tiny boys who symbolise the desperation of thousands: Bodies of drowned brothers are washed up on Turkish beach after trying to reach Europe with parents

These heartbreaking pictures of the tiny body of a migrant boy who died alongside his brother on the perilous journey across the Mediterranean today shocked the world.
Little Galip, five, and Aylan Kurdi, three, were on an overcrowded dinghy filled with refugees fleeing the war in Syria when it capsized shortly into the crossing to the Greek island of Kos.

Pictures of Aylan’s limp body in the sand and of it being carried by a local gendarme has come to epitomise the crisis engulfing Europe as a tide of humanity flees the horrors in the Middle East.

The boys’ parents were among just four survivors and collapsed with grief and exhaustion as they said their final goodbyes at a local mortuary.

Aylan and Galip, who were not wearing lifejackets, did not stand a chance when the boat overturned in the dead of night 30 minutes after it set off from the holiday resort of Bodrum in Turkey.

All 16 passengers were flung into the Mediterranean, and despite the calm water, Galip and Aylan drowned.

Their lifeless bodies, still clad in tiny T-shirts and shorts, washed up on the beach in Bodrum today and boatmen alerted the authorities.

A heartbreaking photograph of a Turkish gendarme cradling one of the boys in his arms emerged shortly after the tragedy and video footage showed the body of the second.