Al-Arish, Egypt  - Egyptian police were searching for survivors after a tunnel used for smuggling goods under Egypt's border with the Gaza Strip collapsed on Saturday, police said.

Egyptian police told the German Press Agency dpa that security officials from the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip had contacted them for assistance in rescuing a group of young Palestinian smugglers after they did not emerge from the tunnel.

The tunnel ran from a farm on the Egyptian side of the border, not far from the crossing at the divided town of Rafah, police said, adding that they were now digging through the collapsed earth looking for any survivors.

Egypt has come under intense international pressure, particularly from the United States and Israel, to cut down on the smuggling of basic commodities and weapons through the tunnels in defiance of the nearly two-year-old blockade of the Gaza Strip.

Last week, a young Palestinian smuggler died when a smuggling tunnel collapsed, police said.

Egyptian police regularly arrest smugglers in the region near the border. Police found and destroyed two tunnels into the territory on Thursday, they said. (dpa)