DANVILLE (BCN) -- Three men armed with sledgehammers and pepper spray robbed a consignment store in Danville Friday morning, terrifying employees and customers and sending two people to local hospitals, police Chief Steve Simpkins said.

The Danville Police Department received a report at 10:26 a.m. about the robbery of the Home Consignment Center at 1901 Camino Ramon, just east of Interstate 680, Simpkins said.

Three men wearing jeans, black hooded sweatshirts over white T-shirts, gloves, and masks covering the lower part of their faces had entered the store and sprayed several employees and customers with pepper spray, Simpkins said.

San Ramon Valley Fire Department personnel treated some of the victims for their exposure at the scene, but two had to be transported to local hospitals for treatment, Simpkins said.

He said he expects the people taken to hospitals to recover quickly since the excruciating effects of pepper spray tend to subside after several hours.

"Pepper spray is extremely uncomfortable, but it's not a long-lasting thing," Simpkins said.

The robbers smashed several glass jewelry display cases and stole merchandise before leaving the store and getting into a white sedan that may have been a Cadillac, he said.

The value of the jewelry stolen was not immediately known since the owners of the consignment store were still calculating how much they had lost as of 12:30 p.m. Friday, Simpkins said.

There was apparently a fourth suspect in the sedan, which was last seen driving south on Camino Ramon toward the San Ramon border, he said. The suspects and vehicle are still at large.

Because the men were wearing masks that obscured their faces as well as hoods over their heads, there were conflicting reports as to the ages and races of the men, Simpkins said. Police hope to glean more information about the suspects' identities from the store's security cameras.

"There is surveillance footage that we will be blowing up and analyzing," Simpkins said. "We'll figure it out."

Anyone with information about the robbery is asked to call Detective Anthony Maldonado of the Danville Police Department at (925) 314-3711.

(© CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Bay City News contributed to this report.)