Al-Arish, Egypt  - Egyptian police seized half a ton of explosives in a cemetery in the border town of Rafah, an Egyptian security official told the German Press Agency dpa on Saturday.

Police discovered eight large plastic bags full of TNT in the Maqronatien cemetery in the divided town of Rafah, which is bisected by Egypt's border with the Gaza Strip, a source in Egypt's Interior Ministry said, requesting anonymity.

Tanks shells and ammunition left over from the 1967 and 1973 wars with Israel were also found in the cache, he said.

Egyptian security officers also discovered 10 mortar rounds and a horde of ammunition of different calibers buried in a trash bag in a warehouse in Rafah, the source said, adding that police were investigating, but had not yet made arrests in connection with the find.

Egypt has been under consistent international pressure, particularly from the United States and Israel, to curtail weapons smuggling across its border with the Gaza Strip.

Last week, four Palestinians were injured when a smuggling tunnel they were building under the border collapsed, suffocating them, Palestinian medics said.

Palestinian security officials said the tunnelers had apparently been working to replace smuggling tunnels Egyptian police had recently destroyed.(dpa)