Police say Milan Poparic fled with a fellow inmate late Thursday after two accomplices rammed a gate and fired on guards at the Orbe prison in the western canton (state) of Vaud.
The 34-year-old Bosnian national was serving a sentence of six years and eight months for robbing a jewelry store in Neuchatel, Switzerland, in 2009.
A police statement Friday said Poparic was a member of the Pink Panthers group, prime suspects in a series of thefts over the past decade.
The gang is named after the 1963 movie starring Peter Sellers as the bungling Inspector Clouseau.
Fellow inmate Adrian Albrecht was serving a seven-year prison for various crimes.
