Sharm el Sheikh (Egypt) (AFP) -
The first planes repatriating stranded tourists left the Egyptian Red
Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Friday as reports suggested intercepted
communications back up fears that a bomb downed a Russian jet.
With concerns
over security mounting, European airlines started to bring home
thousands of tourists from the Sinai peninsula resort from where the
crashed Russian plane took off last Saturday.
But
there were angry scenes at the airport as thousands of anxious Britons
who had hoped to fly home were sent back to their hotels after Egypt
blocked additional repatriation flights.
A first flight took off for London's Gatwick airport after a long delay.
In
a sign of mounting fears about the security of baggage handling in
Egypt, Dutch carrier KLM announced that it had banned check-in luggage
on an early flight from Cairo, mirroring moves taken by several European
airlines on Sharm flights.
The Islamic State (IS) jihadist group
has claimed responsibility for the disaster, in which the Saint
Petersburg-bound jet crashed minutes after taking off, killing all 224
mainly Russian tourists on board.
Cairo and Moscow have sought to downplay the suggestion of an attack.
But
Obama told a US radio station: "I think there is a possibility that
there was a bomb on board and we are taking that very seriously," while
emphasising it was too early to say for sure.
In
London, where Prime Minister David Cameron hosted Egyptian President
Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Thursday, the British premier told reporters it
was "more likely than not that it was a terrorist bomb" that caused the
crash.
And The Times newspaper reported on Friday that electronic
communications intercepted by British and US spies suggested a bomb may
have been carried onto the plane.
A joint intelligence operation used satellites to uncover the chatter between militants in Sinai and Syria, it said.
"The tone and content of the messages convinced analysts that a
bomb had been carried on board by a passenger or a member of the
airport ground staff," the newspaper reported, without giving a source.
The
BBC's security correspondent Frank Gardner said Britain's security
services suspect someone with access to the plane's baggage compartment
inserted an explosive device shortly before the plane departed.
- 'No evidence' -
But Egypt's civil aviation minister Hossam Kamal said there was "as yet no evidence or data confirming the theory" of an attack.
And the Kremlin said Britain had not shared the intelligence on which its bomb suspicions were based.
"We don't know what data our British colleagues are basing themselves on," spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Sisi
sought to use his trip to London to allay fears over the safety of
tourists in Egypt after several nations suspended flights to and from
Sharm el-Sheikh -- leaving holidaymakers stranded while officials
assessed security at the airport.
There is no global or European blanket ban and some flights, including all Russian ones, have continued from the airport.
But
France and Belgium have warned citizens against travelling to Sharm
el-Sheikh and Britain has advised against all but essential travel by
air to or from the resort.
- Angry Britons heckle ambassador -
The British government authorised flights to resume from the
resort on Friday to bring home an estimated 20,000 British tourists.
But thousands were turned away after Egypt blocked British tour operators from flying in empty aircraft to make up the backlog.
That
meant just three aircraft were expected to get away compared with 29
that had been planned, and the first easyJet flight did not take off
until 1:15 pm (1115 GMT), after hours of delay in the departure lounge
and on the tarmac.
Britain's ambassador, John Casson, was heckled as he announced the news.
"When are we going home?" shouted one Briton forced to spend another night in a Sharm hotel. "We don’t know what’s happening."
There was no immediate word from the Egyptian authorities on
the reasons for their move but easyJet said it was doing all it could to
bring its customers home as soon as possible.
"We are working with the UK government at the highest level on a solution," the airline said in statement.
Those passengers who did fly out were allowed to carry hand luggage only, with their check-in bags to follow separately.
Joining
a string of airlines in avoiding Sharm el-Sheikh, the Lufthansa Group
announced its subsidiary Eurowings would halt flights between Germany
and the Red Sea resort, while Turkish Airlines also cancelled two
flights.
If it was behind the
attack, it would be the first time IS, which controls large areas of
Syria and Iraq, has attacked a passenger plane.
It
has the potential to deeply damage Egypt's tourism industry, still
struggling to recover from a turbulent four years following its 2011
revolution
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