Police are hunting a gang of thieves who stole two rare Fabergé eggs among a haul worth £250,000 from a jewellers in a daylight raid yesterday.

The thieves used sledge hammers to smash the window of Clive Ranger jewellers in Cardiff and stole the contents of the window display before speeding off in a stolen car.

They took a £65,000 Fabergé egg that was one of only 12 in the world, and a second Welsh-themed egg that was made exclusively for the jewellers, worth £18,000.

A rare Fabergé watch, worth £6,000, was also stolen as well as 40 diamond rings.

Witnesses said that two men wearing balaclavas and gloves pulled up outside the jewellers at about 10.30am yesterday. They smashed the reinforced glass windows with sledge hammers and swept the precious goods into two black holdalls. They got into an awaiting car driven by a third man.

A bus driver tried to stop the getaway car by driving in front of it, but the vehicle mounted the pavement to escape. No one was hurt in the robbery, but Clive Parry, the store manager, said that a couple of people had been left "shaken up by it".

Mr Parry said: "We had just finished putting the window display out when there was a couple of almighty bangs. We went outside to see what was going on just in time to see a couple of people getting into a car that was waiting.

"They had used sledge hammers to smash the window and just scooped up what they could. There was a couple of witnesses that said they had a firearm, but I didn't see if myself."

During the raid, thieves damaged the base of the £65,000 egg, called a Hen Egg, possibly reducing its value. The egg contains a golden hen, which concealed inside this is an egg pendant.

Mr Parry said that the two eggs, which had been on display in the same place in the shop window for the past month, could have been stolen to order.

"There is the theory that they had been stolen to order because they knew exactly where to smash the window, so there was a possibility that some unscrupulous collector could have arranged it," he said.

South Wales Police launched an appeal for information and released details of a stolen VW car, registration number CV07 PVL, that they are trying to trace.

A spokesman said: "They removed display trays of jewellery and emptied the contents into two black holdalls. The two suspects then got into a car and drove off."

A car matching that description was later found on fire in the Pontcanna area close to the city centre.

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