BRUSSELS, Oct 14 (AFP) - European Parliament president Josep Borrell Thursday furiously attacked a French far-right member of the European Parliament who questioned the existence of Nazi gas chambers used in the Holocaust.  

National Front member Bruno Gollnisch had this week said that "historians might question the number of deaths" in the Nazi genocide of the Jews and on the gas chambers' existence, said: "It is up to historians to decide."  

Borrell condemned "in the firmest possible manner" the remarks by Gollnisch, who was speaking on Monday in his home city of Lyon in response to a report on Holocaust denial by French historian Henry Rousso.  

The head of the European Union assembly, calling for Gollnisch to be prosecuted, told a news conference that the remarks "revolt us, insult us, shock us".  

"Mr Gollnisch, be aware that I'm shamed to have heard a European deputy put in doubt by such scandalous affirmations the existence of the gas chambers... One cannot deny history, one cannot contest the Holocaust," Borrell said.  

"I hope that you will be answerable to justice for these calumnies."  

The controversy sparked by Gollnisch recalls a huge row that erupted in 1987 when National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen described the gas chambers as a "detail of history".