The Turkish official who found the body of a Syrian toddler washed ashore last week has spoken of the prayer he spoke when he approached the boy.
Aylan Kurdi (3) was found on a Bodrum beach.
He drowned alongside his brother Ghalip (5) and his Mother Rehan while trying to cross a short stretch of sea between Turkey and Greece.
The Gendarmerie Command Sergeant Major told the Dogan News Agency, the media organisation that first published a photograph of the policeman carrying the boy's body: "I prayed god to find him alive. I thought of my own son when I saw him".
Veteran police officer Mehmet Çıplak told reporters: "I craved, searched for a sign of life. However, I couldn’t find any signs. I felt sick at heart. People kept asking me how I’ve managed to carry a this heavy burden."
"Above all, I am father to a six-year-old boy. I thought of my own son, the moment I’ve faced the lifeless body of toddler Aylan and I immediately put myself in Aylan’s father’s place. This is an indescribable pain."
He says he was shocked and pained to see the picture in newspapers and on the internet because he did not see the photographer on the beach.
Çıplak pledged to continue working to help refugees, who he warned will continue to try and enter Europe using migration routes they are not familiar with... Human life is more important than anything for us."
Photojournalist Nilüfer Demir, who works for Dogan, has already spoken about her frame of mind when she took the picture.
She told how she was petrified to come across the grim scene, but felt an immediate duty to give Aylan a voice by taking his picture.
