Updated

Italy has launched a manhunt for a convicted serial killer who was allowed to leave a Genoa prison on a two-day, good-behavior pass to see his elderly mother but failed to return.

Genoa police official Fausto Lamparelli said Thurday that Bartolomeo Gagliano is armed and "dangerous."

Authorities said while Gagliano was allowed out Tuesday to visit his mother in Savona he forced a baker at gunpoint to start driving him away. He then forced the driver out of the car and drove off. There are fears he might have driven across the nearby border into France.

Gagliano was convicted of fatally stoning one prostitute and wounding another in 1981, and after escaping from a criminal asylum, killing two others in 1989. He has escaped six times in all.