$re = '/(?s)^.{0,1000}DELETE ME(?-s).*\R?/m';
$str = 'unnecessary stuff
unnecessary stuff
DELETE ME and some more stuff
This line should be the beginning
the rest.';
$subst = "";
$result = preg_replace($re, $subst, $str);
echo "The result of the substitution is ".$result;
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for PHP, please visit: http://php.net/manual/en/ref.pcre.php