Italy flying home coffins of nine victims killed in Dhaka terror attack

The dead bodies of nine Italians murdered during the deadly terror siege of a Dhaka cafe are being flown home.

Italy’s Deputy Foreign Minister Mario Giro took the coffins on a special flight as he left Dhaka on Tuesday afternoon. 

Giro was in a meeting with Bangladesh’s State Minister for Foreign Affairs M Shahriar Alam, before they together visited Gulshan’s Holey Artisan Bakery and O’ Kitchen where 20, mostly foreigners, were slaughtered by Islamist gunmen during a nightlong siege on Friday. 

The gunmen were then shot dead by commandos who charged in almost 12 hours after the militants stormed into the upscale cafe with blasts and shootings while shouting Allahu Akbar. 

“Italy and Bangladesh will work together to combat terror. We will be united in our stance against global militancy,” Giro had told reporters outside the cafe.

The Italian victims are Nadia Beenidetti, Vincenzo D'Allestro, Claudia Maria D'Antona, Simona Monti, Maria Riboli, Adele Puglisi, Claudio Cappelli, Christian Rossi and Marco Tondat.   

Beenidetti was the managing director of Studio Tex Ltd, a buying house based in Baridhara. 

Vincenzo D'Allestro was also a managing director of a buying house in Gulshan. 

The Italian government had earlier said another man, Jacopo Bioni, was unaccounted for and could be injured or in hiding.