Fabio Perrone stole the gun of a police officer, who had accompanied him to Vito Fazzi hospital, and opened fire, injuring the officer and his colleague before fleeing in a stolen car, Ansa reported, citing sources.

Perrone, who was at the hospital in Lecce, a city in Puglia, for a health examination, managed to steal the car after pointing the gun at the head of the female owner, Ansa said.

He then sped off, hitting a hospital worker along the way, before ramming the car through a barrier and making his escape.

Perrone was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison in March last year.

The escape comes almost two years after Bartolomeo Gagliano, convicted of three murders, escaped from prison in the northern Italian city of Genoa after being granted temporary leave to go and visit his mother.

He was tracked down a few days later in southern France.