CAIRO: Egyptian police enraged by the kidnapping of seven of their colleagues by gunmen in the Sinai Peninsula blocked a commercial border crossing with Israel day, security sources said.

Police have been blocking another border post, the Rafah crossing into the Gaza Strip, since Friday to press the government of Egyptian President Muhammad Mursi, who belongs to the Muslim Brotherhood, to help free the seven.

Dozens of police expanded the protest yesterday by blocking Al-Awja border crossing 40 km south of Rafah, used by trucks that carry goods between the two countries, the two security sources said. “Truck traffic has totally stopped,” one said.

Gunmen demanding the release of jailed militants seized the policemen and soldiers on the road between the Sinai towns of El-Arish and Rafah on Thursday.

Hard-line groups in North Sinai have exploited the collapse of state authority after the overthrow of former President Hosni Mubarak in 2011 to launch attacks across the border into Israel and on Egyptian targets.

Presidential spokesman Omar Amer told Egyptian state television no talks were taking place with the kidnappers and that it would be unacceptable to negotiate with criminals.