A Ukip candidate sparked outrage today after claiming tragic Syrian toddler Aylan Kurdi 'died because his parents were greedy for the good life in Europe'.

Peter Bucklitsch, who has previously stood for election as a Lib Dem and a Conservative, claimed the three-year-old was 'well clothed & well fed' and his death was the result of 'queue jumping' the immigration system.

Tonight he issued an apology for the 'evident distress' he had caused, and deleted the comments branded 'sick' and 'nasty' online.

The harrowing image of the toddler's body washed up on a Mediterranean beach triggered public demands for the government to do more to help the thousands of people fleeing war-torn north Africa.

Ukip candidate Peter Bucklitsch sparked outrage today after claiming tragic Syrian toddler Aylan Kurdi died because his parents were 'greedy for the good life in Europe

Mr Bucklitsch, who has previously stood for election as a Lib Dem, claimed the three-year-old was 'well clothed & well fed' and his death was the result of 'queue jumping' the immigration system

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In photos that shocked the world, Aylan, 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.

David Cameron said he was 'deeply moved' by the pictures while Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said she wept when she first saw them.

But writing on Twitter, Mr Bucklitsch said: 'The little Syrian boy was well clothed & well fed. He died because his parents were greedy for the good life in Europe. Queue jumping costs.'

Other users of the website branded the comments 'sick' and 'horrendous'. Ex-England footballer Stan Collymore wrote: 'What a truly awful thing to say. Let's hope your family never know adversity or war.'

But Mr Bucklitsch, who stood for Ukip in Wimbledon in May, initially remained unrepentant. 'Predictable unthinking outrage. Turkey is not a place where the family was in danger. Leaving that safe place put the family in peril,' he said.

He stood for the Lib Dems in South Thanet in 2010, but the party said they kicked Mr Bucklitsch out of the party in 2011 after he stood for the Tories in a council election.

In May's election he won 2,500 votes for Ukip, but is not thought to hold any official office now.

On his website he describes how he was an accountant, and worked as a plumber, and later ran a joinery workshop.

In comments posted on Twitter, Mr Bucklitsch claimed that 'Turkey is not a place where the family was in danger'

Smiles: Galip and Aylan Kurdi (pictured) hail from the Syrian city of Kobane. According to relatives, their father now wants to return their to bury the two boys and their mother

The bodies of Aylan, three (left) and his brother Galip, five (right) washed up on the shores of the Mediterranean

Douglas Carswell, Ukip's only MP, said he had not seen the tweets, but told the BBC: 'I am aware that some people sometimes say some pretty obnoxious things on social media and if a candidate were to do that they would, I hope, be made an ex-Ukip candidate and slung out of the party.

'It's a pretty grotesque and awful thing to say. I think most reasonable people who saw that image would recognise that we have a duty to act.'

A Ukip spokeswoman said that an internal investigation was under way into the remarks.

The image of the little boy lying with his head in the waves upset me, but to lash out at the parents who were trying to do their best was not, on reflection, the best answer Peter Bucklitsch

In a statement issued to the BBC, Mr Bucklitsch said: 'I apologise for the evident distress this caused, and have removed it.

'It was an inelegant way of agreeing that the problems lie in the regions where conditions precipitate such a strong desire to reach a place where life can begin again.

'The image of the little boy lying with his head in the waves upset me, but to lash out at the parents who were trying to do their best was not, on reflection, the best answer.'

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.

Grief: Abdullah Kurdi, the father of the two Syrian refugees found washed up on a beach, arrives at a morgue

Galip (right), five, and Aylan Kurdi (left), three, pictured with their father Abdullah who survived the tragedy

The boys' father Mr Kurdi has confirmed to reporters that he was on board the ship with his family but was unable to save them.

He said the boat's captain panicked due to the high waves and jumped into the sea and fled, leaving him in control of the small craft.

'I took over and started steering,' he said. 'The waves were so high and the boat flipped.'

He told Turkey's Dogan News Agency : 'I was holding my wife's hand, but my children slipped through my hands. We tried to cling to the boat, but it was deflating.

'It was dark and everyone was screaming.'

Mr Kurdi said his family were trying to get to Canada from Kobane after fleeing to Turkey last year to escape Islamic State extremists.

According to Mr Kurdi's Facebook page, he was originally from Damascus in Syria. He told Dogan News Agency he had paid human traffickers to take his family to Kos twice before, but both attempts failed.

'In our first attempt, coastguards captured us in the sea and then they released us. In our second attempt, the organisers did not keep their word and did not bring the boat,' he said.

Yesterday he identified the bodies of his wife and two sons and waited for their release from the morgue in Mugla, Turkey.