(BSS/AFP) - Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese apologised on Monday to the country`s Jewish community over a mass shooting that targeted a Hanukkah event, killing 15 people.

"As Prime Minister, I feel the weight of responsibility for an atrocity that happened whilst I`m Prime Minister, and I`m sorry for what the Jewish community and our nation as a whole has experienced," he said.

"The government will work every day to protect Jewish Australians, to protect the fundamental right as Australians that they have to be proud of who they are, to practice their faith, to educate their children and to engage in Australian society in the fullest way possible," he said.