Europe cannot afford to show compassion to people fleeing from Muslim countries because some of them may be terrorists, Nigel Farage said today.

The Ukip leader said the images of Kurdish toddler Aylan Kurdi drowned in the Mediterranean had made him "feel horrible" but he insisted that the UK could not afford to show too much compassion.

"The EU's compassion… could be a very real threat to our safety," he told LBC.

He said he shared the concerns of some Eastern European countries about the influx of people from Muslim countries.

"A lot of these Eastern European countries with very strong Roman Catholic churches and traditions are very concerned about the number of Muslim people [coming here]..." he told LBC.

"My concern is that Isis have actually said that they will use the migrant wave to flood Europe with half a million of their fighters…Even if it's only 500 I'm very worried about that."

The Ukip leader also questioned whether the majority of people coming from Syria were genuine refugees.

"I think it's very interesting that one of the comments that was made yesterday by a senior Hungarian Conservative MP, he said that watching the migrants come into Hungary, seeing the cellphones they had and some of the clothes they were wearing and knowing how much money they had paid to the traffickers to get them there, he made the observation that actually they were better off than the people living in rural Hungary and that is an interesting point."

This is not the first time Farage has indicated his unwillingness to allow Muslim refugees into the UK.

Earlier this year Farage said he was willing to take a small number of refugees from Syria into the UK, but only if they were Christians.

"[If] we have to give some Christians refugee status given that with Iraq and Libya there's almost nowhere for them to go then fine but Europe can't send the message that everyone who comes will be accepted," he told the BBC.