Beirut  - Israeli forces fired late Friday bomb flares over areas near the Lebanese-Israeli border, shortly after news reports said an Israeli soldier went missing near Lebanon, Lebanese police said.

The Dubai-based Al-Arabia television channel said that an Israeli soldier disappeared while doing physical exercise near the border with Lebanon.

Shortly after the news report, bomb flares lit the sky over the border area of Naqoura, where the United Nations Interim Forces in southern Lebanon (UNIFIL) is located.

UNIFIL spokeswoman Yasmina Bou Zayan told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa "we absolutely have no information about a missing person."

She did confirm that flares were fired over Lebanese territorial waters, but gave no further details.

Unconfirmed Lebanese reports indicated that the missing Israeli soldier might have drowned, explaining why flares were being dropped along the coastal area of Naquoura. (dpa)