Suruc bombing: The story behind the viral photograph of three young activists

Image went viral - but many people did not realise that the photographs were a month old

The three young women posed for the photograph a month before the attack (Madershahi Barajyikan, via Twitter)

A photograph that came to symbolise the human cost of the suicide attack in Turkey went viral across Turkey.

The image, which was originally shared by Turkish Twitter user Madershahi Barajyikan, showed three women smiling at the camera making peace signs.

It was captioned: "This is how we celebrated our victory. I could not come. You are gone. Goodbye my comrade Ezgi. I promise I will not forget"

A number of Ms Barajyikan’s images took off on social media, with Twitter users quickly picking up on a rumour that the three women had been photographed in Suruc only moments before the attack.

However, after watching her photographs being shared hundreds of times Ms Barajyikan tweeted out that the photographs were not taken at the rally on 20 July but a month before that at a pro-Kurdish political party gathering.

She urged users to stop sharing the images. "I am the one standing in the front. Most of the people in this photo are still alive, they have families and loved ones. Please delete the tweet you've carelessly shared," the BBC reported her as having tweeting. When checked, The Independent found that this tweet had been deleted.

The day after the attack she tweeted again, telling journliast to “stop” contacting her and she was not at Suruc when the attack occurred.

The attack killed 32 people – mostly university student activists – in the town of Suruc on Monday, and injured 104.