Sharm al-Sheikh rescue flights ‘limited by airport capacity’ says Egypt

British intelligence officials have reportedly uncovered evidence that suggests the Russian jet that crashed in Egypt on Saturday was brought down by a bomb smuggled into the cargo hold.

But Peskov said the flight ban did not signify any such U-turn and denied it was evidence the Kremlin considered the crash to have been caused by a terrorist attack, a separate Interfax news agency reported.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has stopped all Russian airline flights to Egypt. A timeframe for the aircrafts’ grounding was not discussed.

Britain said it would resume flights from the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Friday after agreeing on additional security measures with Cairo.

Putin has also ordered the government to work out details of how to bring as many as 40,000 Russians vacationing in Sharm el-Sheikh back home. “We are doing all we can to speed up their return and communicate developments clearly as they happen”, a statement from Downing Street read.

The Metrojet’s Airbus A321-200 crashed 23 minutes after takeoff from Sharm el-Sheikh en route to St Petersburg, with mostly Russian tourists aboard.

Multiple investigations are under way to determine what brought Metrojet Flight 9268 down with 224 people aboard, with competing theories being offered by officials in Russian Federation, Egypt, the USA and Britain.

It’s unclear why Egyptian authorities prevented the eight Easyjet flights from operating-Egyptian officials say the Sharm el-Sheikh airport was being overwhelmed-but Britain’s quick attribution of a cause-terrorism-for the Russian plane crash angered both Egypt and Russia.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for blowing up the plane, but has not given any proof.

The ambassador was confronted by frustrated British tourists as he visited the Sharm El Sheikh worldwide Airport, who reporters described as “angry” and “exasperated”.

“We are working with the UK Government at the highest level on a solution”, it added in a statement.

President Obama told the media “I think there is a possibility that there was a bomb on board and were taking that very seriously”.

Ireland, Germany and the Netherlands also suspended flights to the resort.

He said: “We could not fault the security at the airport and they took a long time checking us in and out, but we didn’t really mind as it made us feel safe”.