UK specialists are to carry out a security assessment of Sharm el-Sheikh airport after the government expressed concern that sabotage might have caused the destruction of a Russian-operated Airbus A321 over the Sinai peninsula.

The UK prime minister’s office says that it will host a security meeting today to review the situation.

None of the 224 occupants on board the MetroJet A321, bound for St Petersburg from Sharm el-Sheikh, survived after it came down on 31 October.

“While the investigation is still ongoing we cannot say categorically why the Russian jet crashed,” the prime minister’s office states.

“But as more information has come to light we have become concerned that the [flight] may well have been brought down by an explosive device.”

The office has not specified the source of this information.

But it states that flights to Sharm el-Sheikh are to be “delayed” to enable a team of UK aviation specialists to examine the security arrangements in place at the Egyptian airport. It says it expects this work to be completed today.

Source: Cirium Dashboard