Charlie Hebdo was today facing legal action after publishing a series of allegedly racist and hateful cartoons mocking the death of Syrian toddler Aylan Kurdi.

The drowned three-year-old toddler has become the symbol of the refugee crisis after haunting pictures appeared showing his body being carried off a Turkish beach last week.

But the latest edition of the satirical French magazine depicts the dead Aylan lying face down in the sand under the caption ‘So Close to Goal’.

Above him is an advertisement for McDonald’s reading: ‘Two children’s menus for the price of one’.

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'Moral decay': Critics claim Charlie Hebdo has overstepped the mark after it published a series of cartoons mocking the death of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi, whose body was washed up on a Turkish beach this month

Another depiction of the dead Aylan shows him next to Casimir, an orange dinosaur, under the caption ‘Welcome to Children’s Island’.

There is also a cartoon mocking Aylan’s religion, with a caption reading: ‘Proof that Europe is Christian’.

It shows a Jesus-like figure next to the words ‘Christians walk on water’ and a little boy upended in the sea next to the words ‘Muslim children sink’.

The drawings come nine months after 12 people were murdered by Jihadi gunmen around the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo after the magazine mocked the Prophet Mohammed in a series of cartoons.

It led to millions around the world including politicians and celebrities rallying under the ‘Je Suis Charlie’ (‘I am Charlie’) slogan, as it came to represent free speech.

But barrister Peter Herbert, Chair of the Society of Black Lawyers and former vice chair of the Metropolitan Police Authority, was among many who said Charlie Hebdo had overstepped the mark.

Human cost: The body of Syrian refugee Aylan Kurdi was washed up on Bodrum beach, in Turkey on September 2. He drowned, along with his mother and five-year-old brother, after their boat capsized as they tried to reach the Greek island of Kos

Symbolic: The boy's tiny body has become a heartbreaking symbol of the human cost of the refugee crisis currently facing Europe

Mr Herbert said on Twitter: ‘Charlie Hebdo is a purely racist, xenophobic and ideologically bankrupt publication that represents the moral decay of France.’

He added: ‘The Society of Black Lawyers will consider reporting this as incitement to hate crime & persecution before the International Criminal Court.’

Numerous other outraged posts attacked the ‘disgusting cartoons’, while others said it was an example of how Hebdo attacked the ‘powerless’ rather than the ‘powerful’.

Aylan was trying to get to Germany from war-torn Syria with his five-year-old brother, Galip, and his parents. Galip also drowned, alongside the boys’ mother, Rehan.

The tragedy led to a vast outpouring of compassion around the world, with countries such as Britain and France pledging to take in thousands more refugees.

Shock: Father Abdullah Kurdi, pictured with Aylan (left) and his five-year-old brother Galip. The tragedy led to a vast outpouring of compassion around the world, with countries such as Britain and France pledging to take in thousands more refugees

Charlie Hebdo continued publication after the January terrorist attacks, and has since made millions thanks to donations and sales.

But many have noted how the quality of the publication, which had been struggling to survive financially before the shootings, has remained low.