CAIRO - Gunmen kidnapped an Egyptian police officer on Sunday in the Sinai Peninsula, home to Islamist militants seeking to topple the country's government, security sources and the state news agency said.

The policeman was traveling in a bus from the north Sinai city of Rafah to Al-Arish when the gunmen stopped the vehicle and took him away.

"This seems like a terrorist operation, not a criminal one, but we are not sure if it is Ansar (Bayt al-Maqdis) yet," a security official told Reuters.