The Italian city of Florence is in mourning after a far-right author shot dead two Senegalese men and wounded three others before killing himself in a daylight shooting spree.

Witnesses said they saw the gunman calmly getting out of a car at a street market on Piazza Dalmazia, north of the city centre, and firing three shots that instantly killed the two Senegalese vendors and seriously wounded a third.

The body of Gianluca Casseri lies on the ground in Florence after he shot himself. Credit:Reuters

The white assailant, identified by authorities as 50-year-old Gianluca Casseri, then moved on to the San Lorenzo market in the centre — a popular destination for tourists — where he wounded two more vendors.

Casseri then turned the gun, believed to be a Smith & Wesson magnum revolver, on himself after he was surrounded by police.