In harrowing photos that shocked the world, Aylan Kurdi, three, was seen face down in the sand of Turkey's Bodrum beach after he drowned alongside his mother Rehan, 35, and brother Galip, five.

The desperate family - who fled the ISIS-besieged Syrian city of Kobane - were on an overcrowded dinghy bound for the Greek island of Kos when it capsized. The boys' father Abdullah survived.

Reacting to the tragedy, social media users have created moving and poignant artworks based around the photographs of Aylan's tiny body - with many portraying the tragic little boy as an angel.

Many of the tribute images are pencil illustrations depicting Aylan lying dead on Bodrum beach while a local gendarme stands over his body.

In one moving image, the photograph of the little boy is edited to show a tiny angel with wings leaving his body and being carried into heaven by a woman, presumably his late mother.

The photograph was shared online by Twitter user Sherry Aziz, who captioned it: 'God be with you and all the other little angels #FreeSyria'.

Another painted image shows Aylan as an angel lying face down in the sand, white feathers at his feet and a red rose clutched in his right hand. The picture was shared on Twitter by HA Hellyer, who wrote: 'May we all be forgiven for failing to help this beautiful child. RIP'.

Using the same shot of Aylan, two other images show him with black balloons in his left hand and lying against a grave stone respectively. In the latter, the words 'The End' hover over the little boy.

The image has also been used by Arabic-speaking social media users who used it to make a political point about how few Syrian refugees have been accepted by Middle Eastern nations.

One shows men wearing traditional Arab dress standing over Aylan. The caption reads: 'Refugees welcomed by: Saudi: 0, Kuwait: 0, Qatar: 0, Emirates: 0, Bahrain: 0 #FreeSyria #SyriaCrisis'

Earlier the boys' aunt spoke for the first time of the moment the boys' grief-stricken father Abdullah Kurdi called relatives after the tragedy, managing only to say: 'My wife and two boys are dead.'

Heartbreaking new photographs also emerged of Galip and Aylan this morning - including one showing the boys smiling and laughing as they sit together alongside a large teddy bear.

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

All 17 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 Ali Hoca Point 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.

(Daily Mail)