They broke through a fence on Monday evening and stole gems worth tens of millions of euros as they were being loaded from a Brinks security van onto a plane bound for Switzerland.
They escaped back through the same hole. Police later found a burned-out vehicle close to the airport.
Police are looking for eight men, a prosecutors' spokeswoman said.
Caroline De Wolf, of the Antwerp World Diamond Centre, said the haul was estimated to be worth 50m euros (£43m).
"What we are talking about is obviously a gigantic sum," De Wolf told Belgium's VRT broadcaster
AFP quoted an unnamed spokeswoman at the same Antwerp centre calling the robbery "one of the biggest" ever.
She said that the diamonds were "rough stones" being transported from Antwerp to Zurich.
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