Italy's anti-immigration interior minister and deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini on Friday deplored the "wicked assassins" who staged a gun attack on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, killing at least 49 people and injuring 40.
'I express absolute condemnation for the wicked assassins and pray for the innocent victims," said Salvini, who heads the League party.
Investigators believe white supremacists carried out the mass shooting - the worst in New Zealand's history.
Four suspects were arrested over the attacks, one of whom, a 28-year-old man was charged with murder.
One of the machine guns used in Friday's attack had the name of several far-right extremists who carried out mass shootings in recent years including Norgwegian Anders Behring Breivik and Luca Traini, an Italian who ran as a League party candidate in the 2017 local elections.
Traini was jailed for 12 years for shooting and wounding six African migrants last year in the city of Macerata in the Marche region.
