Jurassic Park creator Michael Crichton has been tied up and robbed at gunpoint by two masked men who broke into his California home.

The author and an unnamed victim, thought to be his 13-year-old daughter, escaped unharmed following the attack.

The robbery took place just before 0500 local time on Monday, but the details have only just been released by his publicist.

"An incident did occur, but everybody is fine, and that's all I can say because a kid is involved," Joseph Marich told the Santa Monica Daily Press.

Crichton has had more than a dozen novels turned into films

Police are looking for two men who were wearing ski masks and brandishing guns as they ransacked the house in Santa Monica.

Once the robbers had left, Crichton was able to untie himself and contact the police.

The 59-year-old writer, also the creator of hit hospital drama ER, has a teenage daughter but is has not been confirmed if she was at the house at the time.

Police would not confirm that Crichton was the victim but said the crime was committed at the home of the author.

No value has been put on the items stolen.

Medical graduate

The writer has been the toast of Hollywood since his 1971 novel The Andromeda Strain was turned into a film.

He has seen more than a dozen of his novels and screenplays transformed for cinema including Twister, Congo and Disclosure.

The most successful of these has been the Jurassic Park trilogy, the first of which burst onto the screen in 1993, directed by Steven Spielberg.

A Harvard Medical School graduate, his medical hit ER has won a host of Emmys since it began in 1994, and helped launch the career of George Clooney.

Earlier this month, Crichton's wife filed for divorce after 13 years of marriage.