The staff of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo have reacted defiantly to the attack on its Paris office that left 12 people dead by publishing a "survivors' issue" depicting the Prophet Muhammad on its front cover.

Three million copies of the magazine are expected to hit news stands on Wednesday, up from a usual print run of 60,000, to cope with a surge in global demand – but Australians interested in buying a copy will struggle to find one.

Few, if any, local stores sell the magazine.

The cover of the first post-attack issue features a cartoon of the prophet Muhammad, who is crying and holding a sign saying "Je Suis Charlie" ("I am Charlie"). Above the image are the words: "All is forgiven."

The cover cartoon was drawn by Renald Luzier, known as Luz.

Two gunmen claimed they had "avenged the Prophet Muhammad" after killing five of the magazine's top cartoonists and three other staff members last week. The magazine had previously been firebombed after it offended many Muslims by publishing cartoons depicting Muhammad.

The latest issue of the magazine will feature work by the murdered staff members and will be available in 16 languages, according to Agence France-Presse.

The Alliance Francaise cultural centres in Sydney and Melbourne said they were not aware of any local Charlie Hebdo stockists.

French expat Jacques Bernard, who runs Le Forum, Australia's only French language bookshop, said he was scrambling to get a shipment of 50 copies of the magazine delivered to his store in Fremantle, Western Australia.

"I'm getting a lot of phone calls, emails, people on Facebook asking me if the issue is available," he said.

Mr Bernard said he had previously sold only subscriptions to the magazine, not single issues. Before the attacks he had around five Charlie Hebdo subscribers; 15 people have since signed up.

The manager at foreign press distribution company Speed Impex, Paula Pirazzi, said she not received any requests for Charlie Hebdo until Tuesday. The newspaper had "never been available in Australia" or distributed through newsagencies, Ms Pirazzi said. However, she received two requests on Tuesday – one from an individual and one from a South Australian newsagent.

"I don't even know whether our supplier in France would be able to obtain it," she said.

Some French users of social media site Reddit have offered to send copies to overseas readers in exchange for money or even copies of the New Yorker.

Human Rights Commissioner Tim Wilson said the magazine – which has also contained controversial cartoons of Jews – "could not have been published in Australia" because of racial discrimination laws.

But fellow commissioner Tim Soutphommasane said the Racial Discrimination Act did not cover offence on the grounds of religion and contained protections for artistic work and fair comment.

A spokeswoman for the Attorney General's Department said that Charlie Hebdo has not been classified by the Classification Board, meaning there were no restrictions on its sale in Australia.