A Charlie Hebdo cartoon has been causing some serious unrest on Twitter.

A week after the satircial magizine marked a year since the horrific terrorist attack on its offices in Paris, it's back in the limelight after printing a drawing of Aylan Kurdi, theSyrian boy who was found dead and washed up on a beach in Turkey.

The cartoon shows two men chasing a pair of women, their hands outstretched towards the girls' bottoms. It says in French, "What would little Aylan have grown up to be? Ass groper in Germany."

The cartoon refers to the recent sexual attacks in Cologne, perpetrated by men some of whom were asylum seekers.

Social media users thought it was openly racist, with @nicolaskb tweeting, "Charlie Hebdo staff becomes openly racist, writes "What if Aylan had lived? He'd have groped women in Germany".

@hira_haroon shared her outrage, "The unbelievably sick Charlie Hebdo, making fun of Aylan Kurdi, once again. Shameless!"