PORT MORESBY - TWO bank robbers were shot dead after the manager's quick-thinking 13-year-old daughter raised the alarm by sending a mobile phone text message, police in Papua New Guinea said on Tuesday.

An armed gang of six men in security guard uniforms took the bank manager's family hostage at their home in West New Britain province, a central island region in the Pacific nation, on Sunday night.

On Monday morning, half the gang took the manager with them and ordered him at gunpoint to unlock the safe, police said.

While guarded by other members of the gang at home, the daughter managed to send an SOS text message to local police, West New Britain police commander Richard Mulou told the Post-Courier newspaper.

Police responded and two suspects were killed and a third was seriously wounded in a shoot-out at the Bank South Pacific's Bialla branch. The other gang members who had been holding the family hostage fled.

Bank South Pacific (BSP) chief executive Ian Clyne confirmed the failed robbery and hostage drama but declined to comment further.

'I am still waiting for a full report from the Bialla branch but all BSP staff and their family members are safe,' Mr Clyne said. -- AFP