Rome mayor: "Shameful act, we will clean it immediately."

Two newly unveiled street-name plaques in Rome dedicated to victims of the 1938 Fascist racial laws have been vandalised with black paint, reports Italian news agency ANSA.

The city had installed the plaques in recent days to replace signs naming the streets after signatories of the racial laws, promulgated by the Fascist regime to enforce racial discrimination, mainly against Italy's Jews.

The infamous race manifesto issued by Mussolini’s government attempted to give scientific credence to racial prejudice and led to laws which stripped Italian Jews of citizenship.

The two streets, previously named after signatories of the racial laws, scientists Arturo Donaggio and Edoardo Zavattari, had been renamed after scientists who opposed the Fascist regime and were victims of the racial laws: physician Mario Carrara, physicist Nella Mortara and zoologist Enrica Calabresi.

Rome's mayor Virginia Raggi tweeted an image of the vandalised street plaques alongside the message: "Shameful act, we will clean it immediately".