Charlie Hebdo: Cartoonist Luz to leave satirical magazine - 'Je ne suis plus Charlie Hebdo'

Charlie Hebdo cartoonist Luz, who survived the 7 January terrorist attack that killed 12 people in the magazine's Paris headquarters, has decided to leave the publication in September 2015.

Renald Luzier, known as Luz, who drew the magazine's cover image of Mohammed after the attacks, told the French newspaper Liberation that his resignation was a very personal choice that has been cogitated for some time in order to try and keep control of his life after what happened.

"After the attacks, we had to start over very quickly. It was a good decision to do the 'green edition' [the one with Mohammed on the cover]. Afterwards there was a collective desire to keep things going very quickly," explained Luz, who joined the publication in 1992.

"Me, I needed time, but I followed for solidarity, to not let anyone down. Except that at one point, it was too much to bear. There were very few people left to draw: I've found myself doing three in four."

"Each issue is torture because the others are gone. Spending sleepless nights summoning the dead, wondering what Charb, Cabu, Honore, Tignous would have done, is exhausting," said Luz.

In April 2015, Luz said he would no longer draw the prophet: "I will no longer draw the figure of Mohammed. It no longer interests me. I'm not going to spend my life drawing [cartoons of Mohammed]."

The first cover of the satirical Charlie Hebdo magazine to be published following the Paris attacks featured the Prophet Muhammed holding a sign reading, "Je suis Charlie" with a tagline, "all is forgiven".

"The terrorists did not win," Luz told Les Inrockuptibles, reported by AFP News. "They will have won if the whole of France continues to be scared."