More than 220 people died when a passenger jet crashed over Egypt, officials have said.
Seventeen children were among 224 people who died when an Airbus A-321 plane crashed over central Sinai on Saturday morning. There were no survivors, the Egyptian government said.
The plane was carrying 214 Russian passengers and three when it went down shortly after taking off from the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, according to authorities.
Metrojet flight 7K926 was destined for St Petersburg’s Pulkovo airport and had taken off from Egypt at around 3.51 GMT.
The plane, operated by Russian airline Kogalymavia, had disappeared from air traffic control monitors around 23 minutes after take-off.
Security services at the crash site had previously said they believed they could hear voices among the wreckage, but the Associated Press news agency later cited Egyptian officials as saying there were no survivors.
Officials at the crash site near the city of el-Arish said the plane had split in two, and bodies were reportedly seen strapped to seats amid the wreckage.
Prime Minister David Cameron tweeted on Saturday to pay his respects to the victims of the crash, as well as those who died in a fire at a Romanian night club.
“My thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of the victims of the Russian plane crash in Egypt and the Bucharest nightclub fire,” he wrote.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">My thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of the victims of the Russian plane crash in Egypt and the Bucharest nightclub fire — David Cameron (@David_Cameron) <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/David_Cameron/status/660434210629558273" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-3103801-https://twitter.com/David_Cameron/status/660434210629558273" data-vars-event-id="c23">October 31, 2015</a>
Russia’s Prime Minister, Dmitry Medvedev, tweeted: “I am deeply shocked by the plane crash in the Sinai Peninsula. The tragedy will be thoroughly investigated, the families will receive aid.”
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Egypt's civil aviation minister said an investigative team has arrived at the crash site in the Sinai Peninsula to examine the debris and try to locate the plane’s black box.
Egyptian officials say the pilot of the Russian airliner had reported technical difficulties and wanted to make an emergency landing before losing contact with air traffic controllers.
But Mike Vivian, a former head of flight operations at the Civil Aviation Authority, said “hostile action” should not be ruled out.
He told Sky News: “Although hostile action has been dismissed I am absolutely certain that will be one of the focuses of investigators on the ground.”
Flight Radar 24's Mikail Robertson told the BBC the plane lost 1,500 metres of altitude in the space of just one minute before coverage was lost.
