French satirical magazine Charle Hedbo has left people furious after releasing a cartoon of the Queen kneeling on Meghan Markle’s neck in a similar fashion to the way that US man George Floyd passed away.

The cartoon, published Sunday, was titled “WHY MEGHAN QUIT BUCKINGHAM”, with Markle drawn to say “Because I couldn’t breathe anymore!”.

US man George Floyd was unarmed and died after Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for nine minutes. Video footage of the incident released had Floyd saying “I can’t breathe”, which became the rallying cry of the Black Lives Matter movement.

The cover has been shared on Twitter and has been described as “utterly appalling”.

Dr Halima Begum, CEO of anti-racism think-tank Runnymede Trust, said that the image was “wrong on every level”.

“#CharlieHebdo, this is wrong on every level. The Queen as #GeorgeFloyd ‘s murderer crushing Meghan’s neck? #Meghan saying she’s unable to breathe? This doesnt push boundaries, make anyone laugh or challenge #racism. It demeans the issues & causes offence, across the board.”

Another Twitter user voiced their outrage, saying it was “disgusting”.

“Words cannot describe just how disgusting I found that Charlie Hebdo cover.

“Punching down and constantly drawing racist caricatures it’s not satire.”

The cartoon comes after Markle claimed an unnamed member of the royal family commented on the colour of Archie’s skin before he was born.

Buckingham Palace said that the allegation of racism was “concerning” and that the matter would be dealt with privately.