An Italian town devastated by a deadly earthquake last month is suing French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo for defamation, after it released a series of cartoons about victims of the disaster.

The satirical magazine caused an outcry in the Italian town of Amatrice by publishing three pasta-themed cartoons on the subject of the quake.

One of the cartoons, titled Earthquake Italian style, depicted a balding man covered in blood with the words "Penne in tomato sauce" written above, a badly scratched up woman next to him is labelled "Penne au gratin" and a pair of feet sticking out between the floors of a collapsed building is entitled "Lasagne".

"It amounts to a macabre, tactless and inconceivable insult to the victims of a natural catastrophe," the town council's lawyer, Mario Cicchetti, told reporters after the largely symbolic legal move was announced.

The cartoon drew widespread outrage on social media and in the Italian press, prompting Interior Minister Angelino Alfano to say he knew where the authors "could stick their pencils".

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Following the criticism, the magazine published a second cartoon blaming the mafia for the alleged poor construction of the buildings.

The French publication's office was the target of a terrorist attack in January 2015, in which 11 people were killed, prompting an international wave of solidarity with the magazine.

There was no immediate response from the French publication to the suit.

ABC/AFP