( CNN ) -- Police in Switzerland hunted Friday for two inmates who escaped in a prison break staged by a pair of armed accomplices . The two prisoners who escaped from Orbe prison Thursday evening were named by the Vaud canton 's police department as serial criminal Adrian Albrecht , 53 , and Milan Poparic , 34 , a Bosnian national . Poparic was jailed for robbery of a jewelry store in Neuchatel and is part of the `` Pink Panthers '' group , the police statement said . According to the Interpol website , the Pink Panthers are behind armed robberies targeting high-end jewelry stores in Europe , the Middle East , Asia and the United States . Drag queens , fake beards and chocolates : Notable diamond heists . The loosely associated network of criminals has hundreds of members and is believed to have stolen jewelry worth more than â‚¬300 million ( $ 396 million ) since 1999 , it said . Several inmates were exercising in an outside area under the supervision of prison officers and private security guards when the two accomplices used vehicles to breach a gate and barbed wire barriers around the prison grounds . They brought two ladders to help Poparic and Albrecht escape over the barbed-wire of the prison yard , police said . At the same time , the accomplices directed bursts of automatic weapon fire toward the prison officers and security guards to keep them at bay . The security personnel were able to take cover and no one was hurt , police said . The four men then torched one of the two vehicles and drove off in the other , a gray-colored vehicle . Police patrols , canine teams and security officers are combing the area for clues to their whereabouts . The border guards and French police are also involved in the hunt for the four men , police said . Orbe , a town in Switzerland 's western Vaud canton , or state , is not far from the French border .
French police are hunting two escaped prisoners and their four accomplices . Police : two of the inmates belongs to Milan Poparic , an international jewel theft gang . The two accomplices used vehicles , ladders and automatic weapons to overcome security . The One men escaped in a gray-colored vehicle , police said .