ROME (JTA) – Despite condemnation by Milan’s mayor and other political figures, hundreds of far-right extremists from several countries converged on Milan for a concert by skinhead and neo-Nazi bands.

Police on Saturday night patrolled the neighborhood, but reporters and photographers were barred from the venue in an outlying district of the city.

Video and photos on the web site of La Repubblica newspaper showed youths with tattoos and shaven heads and wearing black T-shirts with skinhead and neo-Nazi slogans and logos gathered on the street.

The concert was organized by a group called Skinhouse Milano, and bands and participants are believed to have come from Germany, France and Spain and other countries, as well as Italy.

Milan’s mayor Giuliano Pisapia and other political figures in Milan and elsewhere in the country had condemned the event.

Earlier Saturday Pisapia called it “unacceptable” and said “neither now nor in the future can Milan accept initiatives that draw on the repertoire of racial and political intolerance.”

Parliament member from Milan Emanuele Fiano, who is Jewish, and others had called for the concert to be banned, but police authorities said that the event, held indoors, had not represented a threat to public order.

In another development, police in Milan earlier Saturday jailed a right-wing extremist for having sent a threatening message to the president of the Jewish community in Rome.

Mirko Viola had been sentenced in April to two years and eight months house arrest for his role in the neo-Nazi web forum Stormfront, whose Italian web site also was ordered closed down. The conditions of Viola’s house arrest barred him from using the internet.

According to the Italian media, police found that Viola had not only sent emails but also had mailed a postcard to Rome Jewish community President Riccardo Pacifici with “threatening content.”

SPONSORED TRIBUTES: Click here to read appreciations of U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg.