Quake-hit Italian town sues Charlie Hebdo magazine for cartoon defamation

An Italian town hit by last month's deadly earthquake is pursuing legal action against the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, for defamation over a series of cartoons about the tragedy.

An earthquake last month killed at least 292 people in central Italy, most of whom lived in Amatrice, home to a famous tomato sauce "amatriciana".

The complaint centers on two cartoons Charlie Hebdo published after the quake.

One cartoon, entitled "Earthquake Italian Style," depicted the earthquake victims as sauce-splattered survivors, and layers of Lasagna with blood and feet emerging from it.

The cartoon immediately sparked outcry among Italians, and prompted the French embassy in Rome to issue a statement saying the drawing "in no way represents France's position."

The publication then responded with a follow-up cartoon suggesting the mafia was to blame, saying that "It's not Charlie Hebdo who built your homes, it's the mafia!"

"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 legal move was announced.

In January 2015, two gunmen stormed Charlie Hebdo headquarters in Paris and killed 12 people, to "avenge" the publication of cartoons mocking the Prophet Mohammad. Endi