Friday's incident brought the number of migrants killed near the border this year to at least 28. Border forces killed 19 migrants in 2009. Sinai is used as a transit route by African migrants seeking work or asylum in Israel, and by smugglers to ferry drugs and arms into Israel and goods into the Gaza Strip.

Border forces spotted Sudanese Mohamed Sharaf Al Din on Friday trying to cross the barbed wire demarcating Egypt's border with the Jewish state, and opened fire when he refused orders to stop, one source said.

The migrant died from a shot to the head.

Another Sudanese migrant, 20-year-old Othman Baraka, was heavily wounded after being shot in the chest by police, while two others, also identified as Sudanese, were injured as they tried to climb the barbed wire.

Two other Sudanese migrants were detained on Friday.