A group of armed Bedouin kidnapped 25 Egyptian policemen on Tuesday in the Sinai Peninsula obviously in protest against Monday's killing of a Bedouin man, a security source said.
A vehicle carrying the policemen was stopped by the armed tribesmen in north Sinai when it was heading for a checkpoint at the Egyptian-Israeli border, said the source on condition of anonymity, adding the captives were transported to an unknown destination.
Earlier reports said a group of armed Bedouin besieged a police station in north Sinai near the Egyptian border with Israel and captured at least 11 Egyptian policemen.
The incident occurred after hundreds of Bedouin gathered overnight in north Sinai in protest against the killing of a tribesman in a shootout with policemen on Monday, a local source said.
Witnesses said the Bedouin tribesmen opened fire into the air and burned tyres.
The pan-Arab news channel al-Jazeera said that the captives include major general Mohamed Sharawy.
Meanwhile, conflicting reports said the Bedouin tribesmen just surrounded the police station but didn't take hostages.
On Monday, Egyptian police shot dead a suspected Bedouin drug dealer and injured another one, which caused widespread protests in the Bedouin community in north Sinai.
Source:Xinhua
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