Manila  - Four suspected members of a robbery gang in the Philippines were killed in a shootout with government agents, police said Friday.

The dead suspects, who included the gang's leader, were believed to have been behind a robbery in a shopping mall in Manila on October 18.

A police report said the shootout occurred Thursday evening in Compostela town in Cebu province, 585 kilometres south of Manila.

The report said agents from the National Bureau of Investigation and police officers were serving arrest warrants against the suspects, who opened fire at them.

A fifth suspect was seriously wounded and taken to hospital, it added.

Authorities had been hunting the suspects since they were identified as possibly being behind the heist at the Greenbelt 5 mall in Makati City in metropolitan Manila on October 18.

The suspects wore official-looking bomb-squad uniforms when they barged into a Rolex shop. Police officers killed one of the suspects during the robbery. (dpa)