Sharm el Sheikh (Egypt) (AFP) – Moscow and London ramped up efforts Sunday to bring home thousands of tourists stranded in Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh resort following the crash of a Russian airliner in the Sinai Peninsula.
Britain and the United States, as well as international investigators, suspect a bomb exploded on board the Russian Airbus after it took off from the Red Sea resort last Saturday en route to Saint Petersburg, killing all 224 people on board.
The Islamic State group’s branch in the Sinai has claimed responsibility, but Egyptian officials insist there is no evidence yet of an attack on the plane.
Security fears have nonetheless seen Russia stop all flights to Egypt and Britain halt air travel to Sharm el-Sheikh, while several other countries have warned their nationals not to fly to the resort.
Tens of thousands of people have been left stranded for days by the clampdown, which Egypt fears could deal a heavy blow to its vital tourism industry, already battered by years of unrest.
Russia said it would send 44 planes to bring its nationals home, with some 80,000 Russians estimated to be in Egypt, mainly in Sharm el-Sheikh and another Red Sea resort, Hurghada.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich told reporters at a Moscow airport on Sunday that some 11,000 Russian tourists had been repatriated in the previous 24 hours.
“Today is the busiest day in this sense,” he said, adding that more people were set to return home later on Sunday.
The Kremlin has insisted the decision to suspend flights does not mean Moscow believes the crash was caused by a deliberate attack.
Britain has also started flying out some of the 20,000 of its nationals estimated to have been in Sharm el-Sheikh at the time of the crash.

A Russian tourist waves an Egyptian flag in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on November 7, 2015

– Increasingly frustrated –

Nine flights carrying almost 2,000 people flew back to Britain on Saturday, after around 1,500 returned the previous day.
On Saturday the head of Egypt’s investigative committee said the cause of the crash was still not clear.
“Initial observations… do not allow for identifying the origin of the in-flight break-up” of the aircraft 23 minutes and 14 seconds after it departed, Ayman el-Mokkadem said.