A Russian airliner carrying 217 passengers and seven crew members has crashed in central Sinai, the office of Egypt’s prime minister has confirmed to the BBC.
The Airbus A-321 took off from the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, on its way to the Russian city of St Petersburg.
Egyptian media reports said the wreckage of the plane had already been found and rescuers in more than 20 ambulances have been sent to the scene.
Most of the passengers are believed to be Russian tourists.
Initially, the plane was thought to have disappeared over Cyprus. But the office of Egyptian Prime Minister Sharif Ismail confirmed in a statement that a “Russian civilian plane… crashed in the central Sinai”.
The Egyptian government has since formed a crisis committee to deal with the crash.
The Russian aviation authority, Rosaviatsiya, said in a statement that flight 7K 9268 left Sharm el-Sheikh at 06:51 Moscow time (03:51 GMT) and had been due into St Petersburg’s Pulkovo airport at 12:10.
The authority added that the aircraft failed to make scheduled contact with Cyprus air traffic control 23 minutes after take-off.
A centre to help relatives of the passengers has been set up at Pulkovo airport in Russia, Tass news agency quoted St Peterburg city officials as saying.
The BBC’s Orla Guerin in Cairo said there will be speculation about militant involvement in the incident.
Sinai is a hotbed of Islamist militant with an ISIS affiliated group engage in constant battle with Egyptian security forces.
A source said the aircraft was flying at an altitude where it could not have been struck by something from the ground.
However, the cause of the crash could also be mechanical, analysts say.
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