Deep concern for public safety was aroused in Italy by the brutal homicide of a Chinese man and his baby daughter in a robbery last week.

Over the past 12 months, 35 murders have been committed in the Italian capital, many also involving old people and children.

On Monday, Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno met a delegation of local Chinese community after 31-year-old Zhou Zheng and his nine-month-old daughter became the last victims of the recent spate of violent killings.

The Chinese immigrant, who owned a bar in Rome, was returning home with his family last Wednesday in eastern Tor Pignattara area when he was attacked by two robbers, who opened the fire against him despite that he was holding a baby in his arms.

Local media said that hundreds of new police officers have been sent recently to Rome in order to tackle the crime wave.

One police who has just took office in the capital, Vincenzo Andreone, told Xinhua that guaranteeing safety is not a simple job recently due to frequent criminal acts. "But we are doing our best, and will further strengthen our action working tight with local authorities,"he said.

As police has launched a massive manhunt for the killers who are believed to be young North Africans, a police commander in Rome, Maurizio Mezzavilla, said the inquiry "is delicate because it stakes our country's credibility with China".

Police will make a "targeted" response to the murders with a more incisive and visible action, interior minister Anna Maria Cancellieri said after an interior ministry meeting.

Italian President Giorgio Napolitano himself visited in hospital on Monday the survived mother and wife of the two victims.

"Bringing to justice the criminals responsible for this horrific crime is a duty we owe to Italy and also to the Chinese people and community,"he highlighted.

In fact, the Chinese people living in Italy are more and more afraid of increasing criminality, Marco Wong, the honorary president of Associna, the Rome-based association of new Chinese generations, told Xinhua.

"The crimes against the Chinese people are increasing dramatically. I often talk with several traders, and the story is always the same," he said adding that the hardest barrier to overcome in reporting a robbery to police is often the language.

According to the president of Rome-based Italy China Association, Vittoria Mancini, the Chinese community in Italy was "shocked and appalled" by the murder.

However, the tragedy was clearly a single criminal act that should not have the effect of armoring the doors of many Italians and immigrants who peacefully live together in the Italian cities, she told Xinhua.

"Rome is traditionally an open city, where people of all nationalities are welcome,"she said, adding such tragedies "tell the urgent need of restoring civic society and integration in a multiracial capital where my grandchildren go to school together with others from all over the world."

She said that members of the Chinese community will march through the streets of Rome and Milan on Tuesday both to show their support for the grieved family and to strengthen their friendship with the Italian people in such a distressing moment.