Rabat - The controversial French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo is stirring outrage with a new cartoon mocking the people who lost their lives in the 6.2 magnitude earthquake that hit Italy.

Rabat – The controversial French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo is stirring outrage with a new cartoon mocking the people who lost their lives in the 6.2 magnitude earthquake that hit Italy.

Charlie Hebdo published another provocative cartoon in its latest issue where it made fun of the victims of last week’s earthquake in central Italy. Furious official and public reactions have expressed disgust at the cartoon both in Italy and beyond.

Three figures are drawn in the cartoon, representing three Italian recipes. The first is a drawing of a bleeding man labeled “Penne with tomato sauce”. The second, a woman with acute bruises, is named “penne au gratin”, and finally dead bodies squeezed under a collapsed building are labeled “lasagna.”

The mayor of Amatrice, the town with the highest death toll at 180 victims, bypassed diplomatic euphemism in a statement that expressed his distaste at the cartoon. “How the f*** do you draw a cartoon about the dead?” the mayor asked.

Sergio Pirozzi also stated, “Irony is always welcome, but you can’t satirize disasters and the dead.” He added that he does not believe that the French magazine represents the French people.

Italian Minister of Justice Andrea Orlando also denounced the tasteless cartoon, but refused to comment because he considers it a move from the French magazine to draw the attention of the media.

The wave of denunciation among social media users has gone beyond Italy. Soon after the publication of its issue, the hashtag “Charlie Hebdo” was trending on Twitter, showing the disapproval of people from different nationalities.

A post that was retweeted over 50 times stated “Satire is often cruel, but it should poke fun at the strong, at institutions, never the victim, the vulnerable or weak.”

A second tweet says: “Charlie Hebdo offends Islam and the world says ‘learn to take a joke’ but they offend the Italian quake victims and its suddenly offensive?”

The French satirical magazine responded on Facebook with an equally inhumane cartoon showing a bruised old woman on the floor half-covered with wreckage saying, “it is not Charlie Hebdo that builds your houses, it is the mafia!”