Papua New Guinea police have shot dead two bank robbers and seriously wounded another during a botched kidnapping and robbery attempt.
Police in Bialla in West New Britain province have recovered nearly 200,000 US dollars cash after a shoot-out at a Bank South Pacific branch on Monday.
PNG's newspapers report the attempted robbery appears to have followed the same method used in several hold ups of BSP banks earlier this year in which several million dollars was taken.
The armed robbers, dressed initially in security guard uniforms and later in bank staff garb, held the bank manager's family hostage on Sunday night and attempted to rob the bank on Monday.
The Post-Courier newspaper reported the manager's 13-year-old daughter raised the alarm by sending an SOS text message to the local police commander.
