Gunmen in Egypt's Sinai peninsula have kidnapped two American women in an apparent attempt to hold them for ransom, security sources said, according to The Guardian.

Security in the isolated desert region has deteriorated since the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak last February. South Sinai's Red Sea coast is a major tourism hub for Egypt.

The two tourists were among a party of five travelling from Saint Catherine's monastery in central Sinai to Sharm el-Sheikh when a vehicle carrying men armed with machine guns stopped their vehicle, the sources said.

The gunmen first took all the tourists' money and valuables and then, as an apparent afterthought, grabbed the two women, forced them into their vehicle and fled into the mountains, the security officials said.

Two army and police search parties have gone into the area to try to track them down, the officials have said.

Bedouin in the Sinai, who complain of neglect and discrimination by the authorities in Cairo, have attacked police stations and blocked access to towns to show their discontent and press for the release of fellow tribesmen from prison.