Merkel denounces deadly Pittsburgh synagogue attack as 'blind anti-semitic hatred'

Merkel, who faces a resurgence of anti-semitism in her own country, said her thoughts were with the victims' families and expressed the hope that those injured would make a full recovery.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel denounced the deadly shooting rampage at a synagogue in the US city of Pittsburgh on Saturday as "blind anti-Semitic hatred".

"We all have to stand up against anti-Semitism, everywhere," she said, in a brief statement posted on Twitter by a German government spokesman.

Eleven people were killed and six injured in the shooting, the city's public safety director Wendell Hissrich said, an attack the FBI is investigating as a federal hate crime.

Merkel, who faces a resurgence of anti-semitism in her own country, said her thoughts were with the victims' families and expressed the hope that those injured would make a full recovery.

The anti-immigration Alternative for Germany party, which captured nearly 13 per cent of the vote in last year's general election, has broken a taboo by repeatedly challenging Germany's "remembrance culture" and atonement for the Nazi era.