Rome autopsy reveals victims died "slow and painful death".

Italy's foreign minister Paolo Gentiloni has told the senate in Rome that Italy "will not forget" the nine Italians killed during a 12-hour siege in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka on the night of 1 July.

Speaking in the senate on the morning of 7 July, Gentiloni listed the names of the nine Italian victims of the Dhaka restaurant attack, in which 21 civilians died.

Describing Italy as “targets” facing a “global threat”, the minister said he wanted to make it very clear that Italy would “respond united” against Daesh and fundamentalist terrorism.

An autopsy carried out by pathologists at Rome's Agostino Gemelli hospital revealed that the Italian victims – most of whom worked in the Bangladesh textile industry – had suffered a “slow and painful” death.

The report, released on 6 July, showed that the attackers used machetes and guns to mutilate the four Italian men and five Italian women, one of whom was seven months pregnant.

The bodies of the nine victims were flown to Rome's Ciampino airport on 5 July where they were met by their families in the company of Italy's president Sergio Mattarella, who had cut short a state visit to Mexico.

The president has requested that the government's financial commitment to victims of terrorism be applied to the nine Dhaka victims as well as other Italians killed in foreign terrorist attacks.