GEORGETOWN (AP):

Guyanese security forces killed two more suspected gang members and bank robbers in a shoot-out early yesterday near the border with Suriname, police said.

The killings bring to five the number of alleged thieves shot by police and soldiers in their search for money and suspects in two bank robberies in eastern Guyana.

Authorities have scoured the jungle since several heavily- armed gunmen simultaneously robbed the banks - Republic Bank Limited and Demerara Bank - one week ago in Rose Hall, a town 85 miles (135 kilometres) south-east of Georgetown.

Authorities have recovered seven canisters of money and several rifles that were stolen from army headquarters in Georgetown in February, said John Sauers, police spokesman. Police didn't release the amount of money they had recovered, but the banks said the robbers took an estimated US$500,000 (euro 390,400).

Two suspects have been arrested and authorities were searching for at least five others.

Rising violent crime has become the central issue in the campaign leading up to Guyana's August 28 general election. President Bharrat Jagdeo has said the robberies were an effort by gangs to destabilise the South American country ahead of the polls.