In shift, Russia suspends flights to Egypt, citing security

In an abrupt turnaround, Russia suspended all passenger flights to Egypt after days of resisting US and British suggestions that a bomb may have brought down a Russian plane in the Sinai Peninsula a week ago.

Russia's federal aviation agency said airlines would be allowed to send empty planes to bring home travelers, but it was unclear when the Russians in Egypt, estimated to number at least 40,000, would be able to return home as planned from the Red Sea resorts including Sharm el-Sheikh.

Within hours of the Oct 31 crash of the Metrojet Airbus 321-200 that killed all 224 aboard mostly Russians a faction of the Islamic State militant group claimed to have downed it in retaliation for Moscow's airstrikes that began a month earlier against fighters in Syria.

The claim was initially dismissed on the grounds that the IS affiliate in Egypt's troubled Sinai region didn't have missiles capable of hitting high-flying planes.