Luca Traini was arrested and taken into custody after drive-by attacks in the town of Macerata wounded five men and one woman from Ghana, Mali and Nigeria on Saturday.
It came a day after a Nigerian asylum-seeker and drug dealer was arrested in the same town for the murder of an 18- year-old woman, whose dismembered body was discovered in suitcases.
"Instinctively I turned around, I went home, I opened the safe and took the pistol and decided to kill them all."
After the shootings, Traini, 28, allegedly got out of his car, made a fascist salute with a tricolour Italian flag draped over his shoulders and shouted "Viva Italia", or "Long Live Italy", and "Italy for Italians", media reports said.
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Police who raided his mother's home found far-right literature, including a copy of Adolf Hitler's manifesto "Mein Kampf" and a book by fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.
He said the "criminal act" was prompted by "racial hatred" and had been prepared in advance.
The man allegedly opened fire in eight areas in the town and also targeted the office of the centre-left Democratic Party in a two-hour terror spree in the sleepy town of 43,000 people, press reports said.
One victim was seriously injured in the thorax, the reports said. The other five had lesser injuries.
Traini is a member of the far-right anti-immigration Northern League party and had run in local elections last year.
Media reports said police found a gun in the man's vehicle, a black Alfa Romeo.
"Someone who shoots is a delinquent, irrespective of the colour of his skin," said Northern league chief Matteo Salvini, ahead of legislative elections on March 4.
"I'm in a hurry to be in government to bring back security, social justice and serenity to Italy," he said.
Italians head to the polls in national elections next month, with immigration shaping up to be a key issue.
The country is a favoured landing point on Europe's southern coastline for migrants making the perilous journey across the Mediterranean, often aboard unseaworthy boats, to enter the continent.
But 2017 was a turning point for Italy: the country went from large-scale arrivals in the first six months to a sharp drop-off, thanks to controversial agreement between the EU and Libya.
The Northern League is part of a populist coalition tipped to do well in the elections.
According to opinion polls, the alliance between ex-prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right Forza Italia (Go Italy), the post-fascist Fratelli d'Italia (Italian Brothers) and the Northern League leads with more than 35 per cent ahead of the March 4 vote.
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