Israeli holidaymakers have been told to leave the Sinai peninsula in Egypt immediately due to a kidnap plot.

The warning by Israel's security agencies came after a rumour that an Israeli had been kidnapped in Sinai. The Israeli emergency service Zaka later said the rumour was untrue.

But the security services said they had concrete information of an imminent plan by militants to kidnap an Israeli citizen

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement: "According to concrete intelligence we anticipate an immediate terror activity to kidnap an Israeli in Sinai."

Despite a number of major bombing attacks in the Sinai in recent years, the sun-drenched peninsula remains a popular tourist destination for Israelis. Some 20,000 visited during the week-long Jewish Passover holiday, which started on March 29. Only a few hundred are thought to remain in the area.

Israel fears that Palestinian militants intend to kidnap Israelis in Sinai and transfer them to the Gaza Strip through tunnels under the border with Egypt.