Egyptian police have arrested four students who filmed themselves publicly dancing in their underwear as they created their version of the Harlem Shake.

The four pharmaceutical students are said to have shocked residents of a Cairo neighbourhood when they removed most of their clothes and videotaped themselves performing the pelvis-thrusting dance.

The dance craze was sparked by a group of Australian teenagers who uploaded the 31-second clip onto YouTube earlier this month clocking up almost 16 million views.