Beirut  - Israeli forces fired bomb flares over areas near the border with Lebanon late Friday after news reports about a missing Israeli, Lebanese police said.

The Dubai-based Al-Arabiya channel reported that an Israeli soldier disappeared while exercising near the border with Lebanon.

But the Israeli military confirmed that it wasn't a soldier, but a surfer, who went missing and had apparently drowned.

Shortly after the news report, bomb flares lit the sky over the coastal 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. (dpa)