Armed men have broken a member of the so-called Pink Panther gang of jewel thieves out of a Swiss prison, police said yesterday.

Bosnian gang member Poparic Milan escaped the jail in the Swiss canton of Vaud on Thursday night, along with another prisoner, after accomplices in two vehicles forced their way through a gate and fired at prison guards.

The Pink Panthers, who have a weakness for expensive watches, have staged about 340 robberies on luxury stores in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the United States since 1999, making off with booty worth more than €330 million, according to Interpol.

Milan, 34, had been serving a jail sentence of six years and eight months for robbing a jewellery store in Switzerland’s watch-making capital Neuchatel in 2009.

Known for their spectacular heists, the gang drove two cars into a Dubai shopping mall and through the window of a jewellery store in 2007, swiping goods worth €11 million in a raid lasting less than a minute.

The following year the group walked away with loot worth up to €85 million after entering the Harry Winston jewellers in central Paris disguised as women. (AP)