An exhibition in central Vienna featuring photographs of Holocaust survivors has been defaced with swastikas and a message reading “1 Jesus = 6,000,000 Jews”.

The pictures form part of an exhibition called “Against Oblivion”, featuring the work of Luigi Toscano, a German-Italian photographer.

The installation, located on the city’s main Ringstrasse thoroughfare by the central Heldenplatz square, was opened earlier this month by Alexander Van der Bellen, Austria’s president.

Set to run until the end of May, it was organised by the ESRA psychological centre, an organisation run by Vienna’s Jewish community centre which offers professional help to people traumatised as a result of persecution, torture, migration, abuse or disasters.

Oskar Deutsch, president of the Vienna Jewish community centre and the Austrian Jewish community, described the defacing of the photographs as “an antisemitic attack on the whole of Austria”, adding that “police were investigating”.

Sebastien Kurz, chancellor of Austria, said he was “dismayed by the antisemitic desecration of the photos of Shoah survivors" and demanded "immediate action.

“There should be no place for antisemitism in Austria.”