A mob of Muslims in the Italian city of Florence blocked a local bailiff from repossessing an illegal mosque, with hundreds of people preventing police from entering.

A bailiff and local police attempted to take back a former garage in Piazza dei Ciompi being used as a mosque after the owner of the property refused to renew the contract with its operator due to money being owed.

On Friday morning, hundreds gathered in front of the mosque to stop police from entering the premises, as well as the local bailiff and legal representation for the property owner, the newspaper Il Giornale reports.

Florence imam Izzedin Elzir commented on the attempted eviction, saying: “We do not know if there will be a postponement of the eviction, we are here to pray. We will not leave until we find an alternative.”

“I thank those who do their part to guarantee the rights of all: part of this right is that of property and must be guaranteed, we are the first to say that we must give the space back,” he claimed.

Matteo Salvini, Italian deputy prime minister and leader of the League (Lega) party, criticised the mosque, saying: “If I illegally occupied a shop or an apartment for a year and a half, the public force would ask me to leave them. It works like this in any civil country, Italian or foreign.”

“The respect for legality asked of any other religious confession, or professional practice, seems to me absolutely normal,” he added.

Federico Bussolin, a local city councillor in Florence and member of the League, added: “The eviction of the illegal mosque must be done.”

Similar scenes have been seen elsewhere in Europe, such as in Franc in 2017 when Muslims in the city of Clichy took to the streets to protest a local government move to remove them from a building they had occupied and used as a mosque.

Last year, another report revealed that a radical mosque in Marseilles had also been ordered to close several times over the last five years — but it simply ignored the authorities.

Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson(at)breitbart.com.