Floral tributes for the victims of the Russian Metrojet plane crash in Sinai have swollen to a sea of colour at St Petersburg airport. Paul Chapman reports.
Bombed ... Metrojet flight 9268 was brought down by a “act of terror”, investigators conclude. Picture: AFP/Russia's Emergency Ministry/Maxim Grigoryev
AN “ACT of terror” brought down the doomed Metrojet plane in Egypt killing all 224 people on board, the Kremlin has confirmed.
Russia’s security chief has concluded a homemade bomb destroyed the airliner after traces of explosives were found in debris from the Russian plane which crashed over Egypt’s Sinai region on October 31. The ill-fated Airbus A321, Flight 9821, was heading from the popular Egyptian resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh to Russia’s second-largest city, St Petersburg.
Homemade ... A homemade bomb with the equivalent of a kilo of TNT was on-board the plane. Picture: AFP/Russia's Emergency Ministry/Maxim GrigoryevSource:AFP
“One can say unambiguously that it was a terror act,” the head of the FSB security agency, Alexander Bortnikov, told President Vladimir Putin in a meeting the day before.
He said the plane disintegrated in midair after an explosive with the equivalent of a kilo of TNT blew up.
Putin has issued a strongly-worded response, vowing to hunt down the culprits in every corner of the planet and “punish” them.
“We will search for them anywhere they might hide. We will find them in any part of the world and punish them,” Putin told FSB security chief Alexander Bortnikov, calling the attack “one of the bloodiest crimes”.
Revenge ... VladimirPutin has promised to find and punish the perpetrators. Picture: AFP/Russia's Emergency Ministry/Maxim GrigoryevSource:AFP
An affiliate of the Islamic State extremist group active in Sinai had claimed responsibility for the crash, which is the deadliest civil aviation disaster in Russian history.
Putin also pledged to intensify his nation’s air strikes in Syria as a result of the plane attack.
“The combat work of our aviation in Syria must not only be continued, it must be intensified so that the criminals understand that vengeance is inevitable,” Putin said .
This comes as France carries out numerous bombing raids on Islamic State’s Syrian stronghold of Raqa in response to the Paris terror attacks that killed at least 129 people.
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