President Sergio Mattarella said Thursday he was "dismayed" at Wednesday's gun attack in Halle, Germany, in which two people were killed by a neo-Nazi who attacked a synagogue and a kebab shop.
"I followed with participation and dismay the news of the cruel gesture of violence which bloodied the city of Halle, striking among other things one of the most significant places for the local Jewish community on the day of Yom Kippur," he said.
Mattarella voiced his dismay and grief in a message to German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
"In condemning with the utmost firmness such a deplorable crime," he went on, "dictated by a hateful racist ideology, I wish to convey to you, dear President, to the families of the victims and the whole of Germany the most sincere condolences from the Italian people and myself personally, together with best wishes for the speedy recovery of the wounded".
Germany's president urged his nation Thursday to stand up for their Jewish compatriots as he visited the scene of an attack on a synagogue in the city of Halle, seeking to reassure an unsettled Jewish community after members saw a man trying to break into their house of worship on Judaism's holiest day.
The attack, in which two people were killed outside the synagogue and in a kebab shop, stoked renewed concerns about rising far-right extremism in Germany and questions about the police response.
The head of Germany's Jewish community, Josef Schuster, called the absence of police guards outside the synagogue on Yom Kippur "scandalous" as members of the congregation described waiting behind locked doors for the police to arrive, which took more than 10 minutes.
The assailant - a German citizen identified by prosecutors as Stephan B., firing what appeared to be home-made weapons - tried but failed to force his way into the synagogue as around 80 people were inside. He then shot and killed a woman in the street outside and a man at a nearby kebab shop. He is now in custody. Wednesday's attack in the eastern German city, in which the gun man ranted about Jews and denied the Holocaust in English, was livestreamed on a popular gaming site.
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