Gunmen shot dead on Wednesday three Egyptian policemen in the Sinai Peninsula, where militants regularly launch attacks on security forces, the interior ministry said.

Gunmen shot dead on Wednesday three Egyptian policemen in the Sinai Peninsula, where militants regularly launch attacks on security forces, the interior ministry said.

The three policemen, including a colonel, were travelling in a pick-up truck in North Sinai's provincial capital El-Arish when assailants in a car shot at them and fled, the ministry said in a statement.

The attack came several days after two policemen were killed in a roadside bombing at the entrance to the town.