Charlie Hebdo puts Mohammed on its next cover

This week's edition of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo will show a cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad.

The cover shows the prophet shedding a tear and holding up a sign reading “Je suis Charlie” in sympathy with the dead journalists. The headline says “All is forgiven”. 

This comes after Islamist gunmen last week raided the magazine's Paris office, killing 12 people.

About three million copies of the magazine, in 16 languages, will be printed and sold on Wednesday, much more than the usual 60,000 sold each week, as support pours in from around the world.

The eight-page edition went to the presses on Monday night, according to Libération, the newspaper which offered Charlie Hebdo staff temporary working space following the attack.

The cover cartoon was drawn by the weekly’s cartoonist Luz who survived the massacre because he was late arriving at the office.

Five of Charlie Hebdo's cartoonists - including the editor - were killed in the attack.

Charlie Hebdo's lawyer Richard Malka told France Info radio: "We will not give in. The spirit of 'I am Charlie' means the right to blaspheme."

Survivors of the massacre have been working on the magazine from the offices of the French daily newspaper Liberation.

The new edition will be created "only by people from Charlie Hebdo", its financial director, Eric Portheault, told AFP news agency.