First copies of Charlie Hebdo sell out, IS labels it 'extremely stupid'

The first issue of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo to be published since a jihadist attack decimated its editorial staff last week has sold out within minutes at kiosks across France.

"It was incredible. I had a queue of 60-70 people waiting for me when I opened," said a woman working at a newspaper kiosk in Paris on Wednesday.

"I've never seen anything like it. All my 450 copies were sold out in 15 minutes."

The new issue features a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed on its cover, holding a "Je Suis Charlie" sign under the headline "All is forgiven".

It has already drawn ire from Muslim groups in some countries that oppose depictions of Islam's founder.

The Islamic State group's radio station has described it as an "extremely stupid" act.

"Charlie Hebdo has again published cartoons insulting the prophet and this is an extremely stupid act," said a statement read on Al-Bayan radio, which the jihadist group broadcasts in areas under its control in Syria and Iraq.

The magazine has printed up to three million copies of its "survivors' issue" - profit from which will go to victims' families.

That dwarfs its usual 60,000 print run.

"Our Mohammed is above all just a guy who is crying," said cartoonist Luz, who designed the new front cover.

"He is much nicer than the one followed by the gunmen."

New copies are expected to reach newsstands across France in the coming days.

Distributors said Charlie Hebdo will print two million more copies of this week's issue after overwhelming demand on Wednesday morning.

"The editor decided this morning to increase the print run to five million," said Veronique Faujour, head of press distribution firm MLP.

One newsstand just off Paris' Champs Elysee sold out at 6.05am - five minutes after opening.

At Saint-Lazare, people hoping to buy a copy scuffled when they realised there weren't enough to go around.

The UNDP union representing news vendors throughout the country said the new Charlie Hebdo issue had sold out across France hours after it hit newsstands.

The cover of the magazine is below. Scroll down if you wish to see it.

A total of 700,000 issues of the magazine were distributed early on Wednesday but other copies of the magazine will be made available for sale throughout the week.

Several copies of the publication had already found their way on to eBay where they were attracting three-figure bids, well in excess of the 3-euro ($A4.50) cover price.

Meanwhile, the daily Cumhuriyet newspaper in Turkey on Wednesday printed a four-page pull-out containing cartoons and articles translated into Turkish from the latest Charlie Hebdo issue.

Along with a Charlie Hebdo editorial about how it would not give into the attacks, the excerpts in Cumhuriyet included cartoons satirising Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram and other jihadists.

The pull-out edition did not include the controversial front cover of the new Charlie Hebdo, which shows a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed.

However a smaller version of that cartoon was included on page five of the newspaper itself in a column by Cumhuriyet commentator Hikmet Cetinkaya.

Sources at Cumhuriyet said there had been a long debate about printing the edition, which ended in the printing of a shorter pull-out version rather than the full issue of the French weekly.

Cumhuriyet was founded in 1924 at the behest of the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.