Thousands still stranded in Egypt

The emergencies ministry will later Saturday be sending two planes, one to Hurghada and another one to Sharm el-Sheikh, to pick up tourists’ luggage, a spokeswoman, Tatyana Zholobova, told AFP.

“If this turns out to be a device planted by an IS operative, or by somebody inspired by IS, then clearly we will have to look again at the level of security we expect to see in airports in areas where IS is active”, Hammond said.

Russian Federation and Britain have suspended flights from Sharm el Sheikh, a popular resort area on the Red Sea, while a few airlines are routing flights away from the area where the fighting is taking place. Cairo and Moscow initially dismissed a claim Islamic State (IS) jihadists downed the plane, but growing evidence it was attacked has prompted several countries to warn against travel to Sharm el-Sheikh.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich told reporters at a Moscow airport on Sunday that a few 11,000 Russian tourists had been repatriated in the previous 24 hours.

Meanwhile, Kogalymavia, the Russian airliner which operates Metrojet, said Friday, according to Sputnik News, that it will suspend all its passenger flights to Egypt following the crash amid speculations that a bomb might have brought down the plane.

The Egyptian junta, by contrast, has repeatedly denied that ISIS was responsible for the attack, and has slammed the nations that have halted flights to the peninsula as buying into “propaganda”.

There have been reports that security agencies received intelligence based on intercepted communications between Sinai militants which pointed towards a bomb on the plane.

A group affiliated with Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the crash of an Airbus A321 operated by a Russian carrier on Saturday that was bringing holidaymakers home from a resort on Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.

News that officials were reviewing camera footage at the airport came shortly before investigators who have examined the plane’s black boxes were due to speak about their work so far.

Passengers were told they would be able to depart only with their hand luggage and would have to leave all hold luggage behind for additional screening.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s office said he called Putin and they agreed to bolster coordination to “strengthen security measures for Russian planes”.

Flights resumed on Friday to bring home stranded tourists in the resort, where about 20,000 Britons were on holiday.

“Until we know the real reasons for what happened, I consider it expedient to stop Russian flights to Egypt”, said Bortnikov.

A first flight landed at London’s Gatwick airport Friday afternoon, after a lengthy delay to its departure.

He said the government would find a way to bring Russians back home and would open talks with Egyptian authorities to guarantee flight safety.

France’s accident-investigation agency has experts now in Egypt probing the crash because the Kogalymavia/Metrojet plane was made in France.