Saboteurs have blown up the pipeline 14 times since 2011, although police officials have yet to say whether or not the latest explosion was caused by a bomb.

Witnesses heard a loud explosion and saw flames from the blast site near the northern Sinai town of El-Arish.

Egypt has been gripped by security problems since the uprising that ousted president Hosni Mubarak in February 2011. The Sinai peninsula is particularly sensitive because of tensions with its heavily armed Bedouin community.

Cairo froze supplies to Israel earlier this year to negotiate a new price. Several Mubarak-era ministers and businessmen have been tried and imprisoned for selling the gas to Israel at below market rates.