Police have charged two men following the alleged armed robbery of a jewellery store at Double Bay.

Officers attached to the State Crime Command’s Robbery and Serious Crime Squad formed Strike Force Optimise in June 2012 to investigate a number of robberies across the Sydney Metropolitan area.

About 8:40am today (Friday 20 July 2012), police were called to a jewellery store on Knox Street following reports several males, armed with sledgehammers and chainsaws, were robbing the premises.

Upon police arrival a stolen white BMW M3 was seen leaving the premises.

The BMW was followed to the underground car park of a unit block on Willis Lane, Kingsford where police attempted to arrest the occupants of the vehicle.

Officers from the Tactical Operations Unit followed a 39-year-old man to Anzac Parade where he was arrested. Two bags containing a large amount of jewellery were found nearby.

A 33-year-old man was later located hiding in the yard of a house on Middle Street, Kingsford. He was arrested by police with the assistance of the Dog Squad.

Both men were taken to Maroubra Police Station and charged with a number of offences including aggravated take and drive motor vehicle, aggravated break and enter in company, robbery armed with offensive weapon and participate in criminal group.

It will be alleged the men were involved in the break-in of a café on Bourke Road, Alexandria on Wednesday 11 July 2012.

The pair was also allegedly involved in the break-in of a mower business on Victoria Road, Drummoyne yesterday morning (Thursday 19 July 2012) where they stole two chainsaws.

Both men have been refused bail to appear in Parramatta Bail Court tomorrow (Saturday 21 July 2012).

A third man who was allegedly involved in the jewellery store robbery managed to evade police.

The man is described as being of Aboriginal/Torres Strait Islander appearance, aged in his mid 30s, slim/medium build, 175cm tall with short dark hair and wearing a grey t-shirt, black jumper and black pants.