72nd anniversary of massacre at Rome's Fosse Ardeatine.

Italian president Sergio Mattarella attended a wreath-laying ceremony at Rome’s Fosse Ardeatine mausoleum on 23 March, in memory of the 335 people killed by the then occupying Nazi forces 72 years ago, on 24 March 1944.

This was Mattarella’s third visit to the mausoleum since taking office in January 2015: the president made a symbolic visit there just after his election.

The mass killing in 1944 was in retaliation to a partisan attack on a column of marching German policemen the day before on Via Rasella, near Piazza Barberini in central Rome.

The Nazis decided that ten Italians should be executed for each German, an order soon authorised by Hitler who stipulated that it be carried out within 24 hours.