Italian premier Mario Draghi travelled to L'Aquila on Tuesday morning to inaugurate a park in memory of the 309 victims of the earthquake that devastated the Abruzzo capital in 2009. Describing the earthquake as a "deep wound inflicted on the community", Draghi said: "We cannot and must not forget," hailing the victims as "309 angels."

Draghi said the memorial park is an open space symbolic of "the emptiness left by those who died that terrible night" but added that it will be filled by families and children at play among the fountains, "a symbol of life that must be reborn by drawing strength from the memory of a tragedy."