Obama says bomb may have caused Egypt plane crash

With concerns over security mounting, a number of European airlines readied to bring home thousands of tourists from the Sinai peninsula resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, where the crashed Russian plane took off from last Saturday.

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 emphasizing it was too early to say for sure.

In London, where 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.