The men were caught by border guards as they tried to slip past a barbed wire fence marking the border with Israel south of the town of Rafah, he said.

“They tried to flee and were shot,” the official said, adding that two other migrants, both Ethiopians, were wounded, one of them seriously.

Another migrant in the same group was arrested, said the official, who requested anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to media.

The migrants killed were not carrying identification papers and their nationalities were not immediately clear, the official said,

The incident was the deadliest yet in a series of shootings of migrants near the border with Israel.

Egyptian border guards have shot dead eight migrants this year, and at least 28 migrants were killed trying to cross the border last year.

The porous 250-kilometre (155-mile) frontier has become a major transit route for migrants, asylum-seekers and drug smugglers. Israel has asked Egypt to clamp down on the traffic.

Egypt’s policy of shooting migrants has generated harsh criticism from human rights groups. The migrants say they try to leave Egypt because of poverty and racism.