Satirical French newspaper Charlie Hebdo has suggested in a new cartoon that a three-year-old Syrian refugee who drowned trying to reach Turkey would have grown up to become a sex attacker.

The cartoon refers to Aylan Kurdi, whose lifeless body was photographed being carried from the Aegean Sea by a Turkish policeman after the boat carrying him sank, becoming an iconic image of the humanitarian crisis resulting from the ongoing Syrian civil war.

The cartoon shows a fedora-wearing man chasing a woman with the caption, "What would little Aylan have grown up to be? Ass groper in Germany".

It follows reports that gangs of migrants organised a string of sexual assaults in the German city of Cologne on New Year's Eve.

More than 560 women complained of being attacked near city's main train station, with 45 percent being of a sexual nature, the BBC reports.

Aylan Kurdi being carried from the sea.

The cartoon was drawn by Laurent Sourisseau, also known as "Riss", who was shot in the shoulder when two Islamic extremists burst into Charlie Hebdo's office in January last year and shot 12 people dead, including 10 newspaper staff.

Whether or not the cartoon is satirising the growing anger in Europe at its open door policy towards refugees, it unsurprisingly ignited a firestorm on social media, with many branding the image racist.

It is not the first time Charlie Hebdo has used Aylan's image in a controversial cartoon.

In September the newspaper's front page depicted Aylan Kurdi's body near an advertising billboard for McDonald's children's menus, with a caption reading "So close to the goal".