Two police officers were kidnapped by gunmen in South Sinai on Wednesday morning, Al-Ahram Arabic news website reported.

The two officers were abducted from an ambulance 30 kilometres from Saint Catherine while en route to hospital for a medical checkup. The abductors forced the driver and a paramedic out of the vehicle and took the officers into the mountains.

The abduction was reportedly provoked by an argument over fuel at a petrol station between a police officer and a Bedouin in which the latter sustained minor injuries.

The Bedouin was arrested and kept at a police station until fellow Bedouins mediated and took him to hospital.

Relatives of the injured Bedouin reportedly kidnapped the officers to avenge the earlier assault.

Bedouins and militants have exploited mounting lawlessness in the Sinai Peninsula since the 2011 uprising that swept autocrat Hosni Mubarak from power.

A counter-terrorism police officer was shot dead in Sinai earlier this month.

Seven members of the Egyptian security forces were abducted by unknown militants in the peninsula in May and released six days later. 

In April, militants fired two rockets from Sinai into Israel and attempted a number of cross-border raids.

In August 2012, 16 Egyptian border guards were killed by militants near Egypt's border with Israel and Gaza. Attackers hijacked two Egyptian army vehicles and crossed the border into Israel, where they were killed by Israeli security forces.