El Arish (Egypt) - Egyptian police arrested six Africans attempting to cross the country's Sinai peninsula border with Israel on Thursday morning, security sources said. Police fired warning shots into the air when they spotted the group - three Sudanese and three Ethiopians - then arrested them. The group said they had paid a gang of smugglers 1,000 US dollars each to help them reach Israel, where they hoped to find work. The six detainees are being held in El Arish prison, and the Sudanese and Ethiopian embassies in Egypt have been notified of their case. Smugglers and migrants attempt regularly to infiltrate the border and enter Israel, often to find work. In many cases, police open fire at the people and human rights groups have slammed a growing number of fatalities. The 250-kilometre border is guarded on the Egyptian side by a maximum of 750 policemen who, under Egypt's 1979 Camp David peace accord with Israel, may only be lightly armed.
